Part 0: Shadow of Youth
by Sagga Bott
Summary: Post Divided We Fall. Just as a freak accident saves Flash from his own metabolism, but not without leaving some changes of its own, an unknown player is gathering information on the League’s greatest weakness.Ch 6of6: What kind of villain attacks a kid?
1. Chapter 1

Part 0: Shadow of Youth

PG-13

Summary: Just as a freak accident saves Flash from his own metabolism (but not without leaving some changes of its own) an unknown player is gathering information on the League's greatest weakness…

Disclaimer: The DC characters are not mine. I'm just playing with them. They'll be returned…eventually, not in good condition but that can hardly be blamed on me!

Author's Note: PLEASE READ THIS SO YOU ARE NOT CONFUSED LATER! I was on some website and I read a bit about what the producers (or somebody) envisioned for the 'Flash' character of JL. Long story short: Wally is the first and, so far, only Flash. No Jay Garrick, No Barry Allen and no Bart Allen. I've included the characters under a similar premise in regards to their influence in Wally's life but they are regular people. Also, Wally was never in the Teen Titans (hence why he's pretty inexperienced about some aspects of the whole super hero thing). However, I like Dick Grayson and the whole Bat-family, so Dick and Wally do know each other. It will be elaborated on in the story. Enjoy!

Chapter 1 – A Posteriori

Out of his earshot the team of doctors discussed his latest blood work. They were some of the best medical minds on earth but they were no closer to helping him. He turned away from them and back to the view. Far beyond him the earth, half cast in shadow hung nearly motionless. It was mesmerizing. He wondered briefly how he hadn't noticed before. Sure he'd seen the view for the years that they'd been up here but he never took the time to admire it.

"Yeah, it's pretty," he'd told his Aunt Iris when she'd asked him what the earth looked like from the watchtower. He thought she'd looked a little disappointed but she'd brushed it off as Wally simply being mile-a-minute-Wally.

He hadn't been wrong but he hadn't been entirely right either. The earth was beautiful, marvellous, wondrous, and all those other nice words he didn't know. He hadn't really felt awe like this in while. Then again he hadn't moved this slowly in a while either, so he had a lot of time to notice things he'd overlooked before.

The whole tower seemed a lot bigger. And the kitchen was a lot further away than he remembered. Details about the architecture of the tower suddenly became apparent and he could appreciate, somewhat, the effort that must have gone into the design. He was sure John could go on for ages about the design but Wally wasn't **that** interested. Of course it figures he'd notice these things now, when the tower was being decommissioned.

Every so often he felt the vibrations as the tower was torn apart. The canon was already gone. There was a ton of damage from the CADMUS assault by the Ultramen but there was no point in repairing it. They'd secured the areas and started to take apart the rest of the station. The useful parts would be saved. The rest would be dropped into the Pacific Ocean. Wayne Enterprises had been given salvage rights to the remains. Wally thought that was only fair since Wayne Enterprises had funded the project in the first place (although only Wayne and the big seven knew it).

He was sad to see it go though. The tower had become his home; the league, his surrogate family. Now it seemed like it was over.

A sigh pasted his slightly parted lips. His stomach rumbled painfully. He didn't move. He was just too tired. They had already stabbed him with two IVs, each dripping some complicated concoctions that he couldn't pronounce. All he needed to know was that they were supposed to help curb his metabolism.

Stupid metabolism. Since the incident with Luthor and Braniac, his metabolism had been stuck in hyper-overdrive. The problem was he couldn't ingest enough to meet that demand. He wasn't worried though. His body would just work it out some how.

He didn't notice his eye's becoming heavy or the darkness creeping across his vision as fatigue claimed him. The Doctor's watched from a distance and a few shook their heads in dismay. They exited quietly.

"How is he?" Superman had been in the next room watching his friend through the observation window. He'd only just convinced John and Shayera to take a break. While they were somewhat awkward in each other's presence they'd been mostly by the young hero's side since the end of the press conference. Flash had managed to put on a strong front at the time but he'd all but collapsed when they'd returned to the tower. That had been three days ago.

"Metabolic rate is still off the charts. He's severely hypoglycaemic. What little fat stores he has are being rapidly exhausted."

"Can't he just eat more?"

A different Doctor answered. "We're giving him high-calorie food whenever he's awake but he hasn't been able to keep it all down. Even if he could there's no way he could get all the nutrients he needs."

"What other options do we have?" Superman didn't like the looks that passed between the physicians.

"We're giving him some drips to keep his blood-glucose up and deliver some nutrients but this won't due in the long term. We've also put him on methimazole and propylthiouracil but it's not having a significant effect. We either need a new way of meeting his metabolic demands or we need to slow down his metabolism."

"And if you can't?"

The Chief Doctor answered. "He'll die of starvation. So long as we keep supplementing his intake he'll last longer but unless something changes it's inevitable."

Superman looked at the dozing hero. "Have you told him?" They couldn't afford to lose him, not after all that had occurred. It seemed that no matter how many precautions they took to avoid it Wally was going to end up dead.

There was a pause before they responded to Superman. "Uhm…Batman did."

_+JLU+_

"You told him!" 

"There was no point in keeping it from him. It's his health."

"You couldn't wait for the last results-"

"Nothing was going to change?" Batman continued to peruse the medical database.

"You didn't know that. You just assumed you knew best!" Batman turned and glared at him. This was an old argument. It surely hadn't been resolved then and now was not the time to reopen the debate.

"He needed to know."

"It wasn't your place to tell him."

"He doesn't need you to hold his hand."

"We just don't want him to think he has to handle this on his own."

Batman transferred some data to a portable device and logged off the computer. "He's been handling things on his own for a long time. I'm sure he's used to it." He walked out leaving an angry Kryptonian in his wake.

Clark was overreacting, a common occurrence when he was faced with a problem superhuman abilities could not solve. Sometimes there was nothing you could do and you just had to sit back and watch. Of course Batman was a man-of-all-trades and he could always find something to do, some way to help. It kept him sane and focussed.

Watchtower personnel, superhero and normal alike, parted for Batman as he passed. Batman knew he deserved his reputation. He'd fostered it himself and for the express reason of striking fear into those who would cross the law. Strangely, or perhaps inevitably, he had begun to stir fear in those who had done nothing wrong and even those who were part of the solution, not the problem.

Batman wasn't much of a social person –he left that silliness for Bruce Wayne the playboy (another carefully cultivated image) to handle so he didn't care what the others thought of him but did take note of it. There was little that got past him. The psychiatrist in him whispered something about control issues.

To most he was the Dark Knight, Gotham City's masked avenger, the one justice league member who you don't want to cross even when he's in a good mood. He liked it that way. The Flash though had grouped Batman with all the others as just another guy in a costume. It had bruised the ego Batman claimed not to have at first, but he'd gotten over it. So he didn't stand out from the rest of them in the Flash's mind. Big deal. His patent-pending Bat-glare worked as well on Wally as it did on the other. Besides, he'd known the Flash for a long time (even though the young man didn't realize it) so he'd had a while to get used to the unusual way the Flash saw the world.

Still, sometimes even Wally was wary of Batman. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Sometimes though, he did like the idea of being just another guy the way the Flash saw him, and all of them.

_

* * *

_

"Are you supposed to be out here?" Superman's cousin asked.

"I have nowhere better to be." He shrugged and continued slowly down the corridor. Kara stood and watched. It was a pretty surreal experience watching The Flash walk when he usually would have been gone so fast you didn't know he was even there.

"Do you need help?" He looked a little wobbly.

"Hey, I may not be as fast as I used to be but I'm not crippled." He walked a few more steps before looking back to where she had stopped. "But I never turn down the company of a pretty lady." She couldn't see his eyes through the white covering without using her x-ray vision but she could almost picture the mischievous green eyes. Or maybe they were blue. She couldn't quite decide.

"Alright, I'll be a lady and walk you home," she said with a smirk.

He said goodbye to Kara when he arrived at his room and went in. She'd looked a little surprised when he'd told her that he wasn't' going to the kitchen. He was still a little surprised too. He was hungry, so hungry it hurt –and not the usual hunger pains. This pain went beyond the pangs of an empty stomach. This was just pure pain in his midsection and he was too tired to do anything about it.

He'd put on a good front in front of Supergirl but once she was gone he slouched. He cold barely stay upright and decided it wasn't worth the effort. He stumbled to and collapsed on his bed. He pulled off his mask sighing as the clingy material was shed. Changing out of his whole costume was and option but he wasn't planning on staying in the tower much longer. He'd been up here for days and there was no guarantee that the Doctors would find a cure. However, he was guaranteed to be loosing out on much needed income since he'd missed so many days of work.

Being a mechanic for the Central City PD didn't pay a lot but he usually scraped by. Rent and living expenses ate away at a lot of his income as did tuition. He was enrolled at Central U in his second year of study and hoped to be done in one more year. Until then he'd have to manage with a budget stretched so thin it was translucent.

He glanced at the clock mounted at the wall and was surprised to find that forty minutes had passed. It was now past four and he was missing one of his classes. He couldn't stay here any longer. He didn't want to be too far behind the rest of his classmates and with everything that had happened recently it would take more than super speed to catch up.

_+JLU+_

Wonder Woman stood next to Green Lantern in the command centre. They were both reviewing the decommissioning process and scoping out the site for the new watchtower. Construction would start soon. It would be located in Metropolis. The mega-city was a hub for international trade, politics and art. The inhabitants were used to seeing people in costumes flying by, and Metropolis was second only to Gotham City in the number of super-powered/super-psycho criminals per capita.

They managed to score some waterfront property and blue-prints of the new facility were already being drawn up. John had already given his input into project. His background as an architect did come in handy every now and then. The plans were quickly being approved and contractors had been jumping to build the structure. It was Gaskel a subsidiary of Wayne Tech that got the main contract.

The base would be equipped with all the good stuff from the old tower but the newest feature would be the water access port for sea-vehicles and the more marine heroes of the league. It would also be a good place for stealth deployment of their forces.

Batman had encouraged them to add a subterranean network. They weren't sure exactly what they'd use it for but as the Dark Knight had said, "just in case". They had already planned for three complete basement levels so Batman's addition wouldn't be a problem. The type of earth at the site and the water currents of Metropolis harbour made for some tricky engineering but it had all been figured it out.

"It's going to be nice," said Diana.

John nodded and continued to look over the map. He wasn't thrilled about the site but he knew the first three rules of real estate: location, location, location.

The Watch Tower was supposed to be a military installation. He wasn't fond of the idea of mixing the military and political aspects of the league together into one building.

An embassy, Superman had called it. Rotating staff, some areas open to the public –to Stewart it sounded like a recipe for disaster.

"Is something wrong?" the Amazon asked.

He sighed. His glowing green eyes shifted to her. "I hope we know what were doing."

Wonder Woman was going to try to reassure him but a blinking indicator caught her eye. Tapping a few buttons details were displayed. "Someone's setting a new destination for the teleporters."

"Who?" There were only a few people authorized to use the teleporters without supervision. It was just too easy to make an error and accidentally redistribute your molecules across the solar system.

"It's Flash."

GL sighed as though he'd been expecting Flash to try and make a break for it. He'd been apprised of Flashes condition and had stayed with the speedster most of the time until his duties pulled him away. Why wasn't he in the Med Bay?

John tapped a few commands into the computer while Diana watched curiously. She wasn't a computer expert but she'd managed to figure out a thing or two. It looked like John was placing a lock out on the teleportation system. Flash could set and reset his destination but the teleporters would be offline until either he or one of the other five founding members changed it.

"I'm going to see what the kid is getting up to."

Stewart soon entered the atrium housing the teleporters. This area of the station was still mostly untouched. The teleporters would be one of the last few components to be removed as they still required their use. Whether they'd install it in the new headquarters remained to be seen. J'onn was really getting fed up with the unreliable technology.

"Having trouble?"

The red suited hero glanced over his shoulder and saw his friend approaching. "Hey GL. What's up?" His voice was dull and tired fuelling John's worry about his health.

"Aren't you supposed to be in the Med Bay?"

He shrugged. "They can't do anything for me, except stab me with needles, so I'm going home." He was unconcerned with his failing health. Somehow his body would balance it out, he was convinced.

"Have you cleared it with the Doctor's?"

Behind the mask Wally rolled his eyes. John's concern was nice but he'd been getting nothing but concern from everybody. "Yes, mom." Lantern scowled making his younger companion laugh. "Look, I just need to get back to my life. I've got a big test in two days that I'm not ready for. Besides their taking apart the station and I can't rest properly with all that noise." He hoped to use GL's concern for him to get what he wanted and by the contemplative look on the dark man's face, it was working.

"Ok-" Wally pumped his arm in triumph. "-but you have to check in every twelve hours-" the arm fell. "…and I'll take you back to your apartment."

Flash shrugged. You can't win 'em all.

* * *

About ten minutes after the Green lantern had left the heroine with the red hair, brown-gold wings and fierce attitude strode into the command centre head scanning side to side obviously searching for someone. "Where's GL?" It was very near a demand. 

"He's taking Flash back to Central City." Wonder Woman's voice and manner were softer than Hawkgirl's and the juxtaposition of the two crime fighters only magnified the contrast.

"I thought he was supposed to stay in the Med Bay."

"Ill or not, it's impossible for Flash to stay in the same place for very long." They both smile at that and a comfortable silence grew between them.

"So…" Diana started hesitantly.

Hawkgirl's eyes narrowed. Whatever the Princess was about to say, Shayera knew she wasn't going to like it.

"What's going on between you and John?"

"I don't think that's any of your business."

"It was just a question." Princess or not, Wonder Woman was just as fierce as Shayera. Flash had been right all those months ago. Even with all the differences they were too much alike and neither of them would admit it.

After an awkward pause Shayera left. She knew it was only natural for her team-mates to be curious. When they'd pulled Wally out of the speed force Shayera and John had been by his side, providing comfort while he was still so confused. After everything that had happened they were all feeling pretty raw. Emotions that were usually well shielded from others slipped through the cracks.

Upon their return to the watch tower, and once Flash was stabilized, she and John had gone off to talk. Well it had started as talking and gone further. The battle still fresh in their mind, the possible loss of their close friend, their family member, looming in the uncertain future and they had turned to each other for comfort. Thankfully or unfortunately they had been interrupted by a call from Superman just as the kiss had escalated.

So they kissed a few times. It wasn't a big deal. Shayera paused in a random corridor. It was a big deal because she didn't know how much of what she'd felt was just because of leftover adrenaline and how much was because she really wanted to try again with him.

Shayera had been searching for John intent on talking this out, until she'd gone to the command centre. They'd both been semi-avoiding each other since that day and that kiss –only together when they were with Flash –but she wanted to confront this head on like a true Thanagarian soldier. Of course when she was informed John wasn't around, she couldn't deny that it had been a relief. Some brave warrior she was.

_+JLU+_

"I just don't know what to do?" 

"Have you tried talking to her?" It was the obvious first step but also the hardest. There was no response from the glowing green guy next to him. "I'll take that as a no."

"How can I? I've already lost her."

Flash scratched his neck. "I don't know…" he drawled. "People don't usual kiss people they don't like." John just sighed.

They were just entering Earth's atmosphere. Safely enclosed inside Lantern green bubble they were free to talk about anything. And as usual, where there was John, there was Shayera, even if only in thought. He couldn't keep his mind off her. Even in the Med Bay Wally had heard some rumours about the two and after more than a little needling by the annoying younger hero John had related the details of the "conversation" he and Shayera had had after the battle.

Flash was really happy for him. Sure he used to have a crush on Shayera but that seemed like ages ago. Now he wanted two of his best friends to be happy and with each other.

Green Lantern had tried dating Vixen and while to the casual observer they'd made an awesome couple and Vixen was undeniably hot, they just weren't a match for each other. Now, John and Shayera, Wally thought they were a match made in heaven. All he had to do was convince John of that. Looking at the older man it was clear to Wally that the ex-marine was brooding again and only making himself more depressed and angry. He felt compelled to offer some advice.

"John, you have to try. If you don't, it'll be like loosing her all over again –like losing a piece of your family. And that would suck."

"How would you know?" John scoffed his thoughts sufficiently dark that he didn't think before he spoke and consequently hurt a person he cared about.

Flash was a little taken aback and tried not to get defensive. "Hey, better to have loved and lost… yadda yadda yadda…"

They were just touching down outside Central City as John replied. "Look when I need advise about stuffing my face and bad pick up lines I know whom to go to. For deep and meaningfuls, I have other sources." He just wanted to end this conversation. He couldn't realistically see his relationship with Shayera improving and he didn't want to dwell on prospects that could never be.

He didn't notice the ephemeral flash of hurt that his callous words produced. "Why's that? Because you need to have a family to know how it feels to miss them?"

"That's not what I meant." John's tone was sharper than he intended and this time he saw the eyes of his friend narrow.

"That's sure as hell what it sounded like." Before either of them could lay down any more remarks they'd only regret later, Flash took off. The trail of dust quickly settled in the calm air and the Green Lantern was left to contemplate his stupid words. Wasn't he always lecturing Wally to think first?

"Do as you preach," the man whispered to himself.

He'd find Flash later and apologize. Hopefully by then they'd both be a litt;e more clear-headed.

End Chapter 1 – From What Comes After

Ok...this chapter didn't turn out exactly like I had planned but we'll get there. Anyway about this story…La Juenesse is supposed to be a fairly short story about Wally, his past and how he is perceived by the other members (and I've added a little action just for fun). Part 0, as you may have guessed, is the introduction to a bigger story that I'm writing. Flash and Batman are my favourite so you'll see a lot of them in the story. Will it be slash? I don't know yet (but probably). We'll see where my muse takes me.

Sagga Bott…


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 0: Shadow of Youth**

_by Sagga Bott _

_saggabottyahoo.ca_**  
**

PG-13

Summary: Post DWF. As an accident saves Flash from his own metabolism (but not without leaving some changes of its own) an unknown benefactor is gathering information on the League's greatest weakness.

Disclaimer: The DC characters are not mine. I'm just playing with them. They'll be returned…eventually, not in good condition but that can hardly be blamed on me!

Author's Note: PLEASE READ THE A/N IN CHAPTER 1 SO YOU ARE NOT CONFUSED LATER!

_**Chapter 2 - Virtutis Fortuna Comes**_

He stripped out of the confining clothing and angrily tossed it in the closet. A flick of his wrist and the sliding closet door slammed shut. What the hell had he been thinking? First he gets all touchy when he was talking to John and then he decides to run home. Run!

I'm such an idiot, he couldn't help but think as he sat down on his bed. He hadn't realized how fast he'd been going until he'd arrived at his front door. It usually took him longer to get home from that far away, and he hadn't even been trying. He just went. He'd been shocked and a little scared when he so suddenly found himself at home. What if he accidentally got caught in the speed force again because he went too fast?

It had to be a side effect from his contact with the speed force. Whatever speed barriers he'd had prior to the incident seemed to have been broken. Without those thresholds it was harder for him to judge his speed and it had taken him long enough to gage his abilities when he'd first got them. Now when he was running it felt even more right. Not effortless but definitely easier. Only problem (other than the threat of eing trapped in the speed force) was his body paid for it later.

Now that he was still again he could feel the fatigue and dizziness resulting from his exertions. He lay down on his soft bed hoping the uncomfortable sensations would pass quickly.

Speaking of uncomfortable sensations, apologizing to GL was going to be weird. He wasn't usually so sensitive about his upbringing. He'd felt included in the League especially when it had just been the seven members. They'd all come from different homes and they'd all lost different things. Strangely it was with a group of super-beings that Wally had felt less imperfect, less inadequate.

His thoughts continued to spin in his head too fast for anyone but him to decipher. The gist of it was that recent events and put him a little off kilter. He'd apologize to John when next he saw him. That resolution formed, his tired body fell easily into a deep but troubled sleep.

_+JLU+_

In the neighbouring city of Keystone a group of the city's less reputable citizens were gathered in one of the usual hang outs. Recent news of Luthor's attempts to take down the Justice League had given direction to some of those in the criminal underground previously lacking it.

"I'm telling you it'll be so easy!" He looked around to find that no one was paying him any attention. "Hey! I'm serious. How easy would it be to knock of Metropolis Central Bank without those super-clods to mess it up?"

From the back of the small room a voice called out. "No one wants to hear it, Keegs!" The rest concurred; they all began laughing.

"This ain't a union, Keegan," an older man slurred around the fat cigar in his mouth. He huffed and folded his cards before turning to overzealous petty crook. "You ain't so bright. Stop aiming so high."

To Keegan Strom the words were an echo of his tenth grade teacher's.

"This time is different, Mick. This time…" he glanced side to side conspiratorially, "…I have a secret partner."

"Nah, your girl's just ashamed of you," commented a man still involved in the card game. More laughter broke out.

"Keep laughing. When I take down the Justice League then you'll wish you would've taken me seriously!"

There was no response from the other occupants. Strom was good for a laugh now and then but taking the guy seriously was a sure sign of diminished mental capacity.

Mick Pokorski, otherwise known as 'The Doc' assessed silently. Keegan was more of a thinker than a doer. Problem was he didn't think all that well. Still, Mick had never seen the man this confident. Strom was flipping rapidly through a small book. His pale blue eyes skipped back and forth from page to page searching for something. Keegan's face had more lines than a thirty-five year old was owed. Mick guessed it was a testament to too many late nights and failed attempts at glory.

"See this?" Keegan had opened to the book to a diagram. 'Standard Bank Vault' read the title. What was this 'Crime for Dummies'? "The weakness lies in the materials."

"Steel?" Mick asked, deciding to play along until he knew everything.

"Reinforced with titanium alloy."

Keegan waited for the clues to come together in Mick's head. The older man just stared at him. The clues apparently got lost somewhere.

"It's totally unstable. The free energy of the steel and the titanium is through the roof. Thermodynamics dictates that-"

"Can the science lesson. Get to the point."

Keegan swallowed thickly and gave a slight cough. He knew that tone of voice. Now was not the time to over embellish. 'The Doc' was in. Everything Pokorski involved himself with was done with surgical precision and he could salvage almost any snafu. It was how he got his nickname.

"If we could speed up the process the whole thing would fall apart. I have a friend who say he can increase the flux of chronotons through-" he was getting the look again, "-we can break it with a special gun. We can break anything."

"Sounds straight outta science fiction," Mick mumbled as he turned away. The others at his table were starting a new hand of hold'em. His time was better spent cheating at poker than listening to Strom.

"No. Just science."

"How will this bring down the League?" That had been the purpose Keegan had claimed before.

He smiled, crooked teeth exposed. "Well, all projects need some financial backing. This is just the first step."

"And how many first steps will this make?"

The smile slid off his face but he would not be deterred. Strom would leave a few minutes later, big plans on a mind that could have gotten him somewhere if his fortunes had been different. For once the circumstances of nature would work in his favour even if he had to force them.

His name would be bigger than Luthor. Keegan Earl Strom was going to collect his dues and no League would stop him.

_+JLU+_

Getting past the lock on the window was no problem. He'd picked enough that it was almost second nature. He made sure to lock the window again after he was through. This wasn't the best of neighbourhoods.

The layout of the one bedroom apartment hadn't changed and there was just enough light for him to avoid the various objects on the floor. Even without his suit on he was silent as he crept to the bedroom. From behind the closed door he could hear sounds of distress likely from a nightmare. Quietly opening the door his hypothesis was confirmed. His friend was tangled in his sheets, head tossing back and forth as he tried to escape his dream.

He gently shook the nearest shoulder and Wally abruptly woke. The startled green eyes turned to the intruder.

"It's just me, Wally."

A beat, then, "Dick?"

He nodded and turned on the Statue of Liberty lamp on the bedside table. The flame in the green woman's hand lit up and the room was bathed in yellow light. Wally looked like crap and Dick was sure it wasn't the fault of the poor lighting.

"You okay?" Wally just nodded. He pressed the heel of his hands into his eyes trying to force away the images. He'd been trapped in the Speed Force and the Wally in the dream didn't seem to mind.

"What are you doing here?"

"Just thought I'd check up on you."

"What makes you think I need checking up on?" Wally stared at his friend.

Dick was a lot like his mentor –of course saying that to Dick's face wasn't in your best interests. Somewhere during his life at Wayne Manor he'd adopted Batman's blank look. The one where you couldn't tell if Bats was mad at you for eating the last of everything and was wondering what was suitable punishment for a guy who could do almost anything in a split second or if he was just sleeping with his eyes open.

Well Dick had his own version of blank-face but he and Wally had been friends for a long time and Wally could pick out little things and get a pretty good read on his friend. Like now he could tell that Dick was hiding something.

"When don't you need checking up on? Come on."

Wally let it drop. Not really caring why Dick was in Central. Missouri was a little out of the way for Dick, who made his home in Bludhaven, a city neighbouring Gotham. "Where are we going?"

"To get some food. You look like you haven't eaten in…" he was going to say a months but for Wally, "…an hour."

"…feels like days…" Wally mumbled. He rubbed his stomach which, at the mention of food, decided to remount its protests. "Just give me a sec to change."

A few moments later and they were heading out. Wally had slipped a sweater over his thin frame, which was looking scrawnier than Dick remembered. Bruce hadn't been kidding about Wally's malnutrition.

Since Dick had known him Wally had always eaten like a one-man army. To him anything else was unimaginable –and as it turns out, fatal.

"What time is it?"

Dick looked at his watch. "Six-twelve."

"Are you serious? I slept for… thirteen hours. That can't be normal. And where the hell is the sun?"

It was that time of morning when the sky was turning blue but the sun wasn't yet out. "Sleeping. Even he needs rest."

"She."

Dick's brain stumbled over the correction. "What?"

"I said the sun is a she." Dick was looking at him like he was crazy. "You said she was a he."

That kind of made sense. Dick shook his head. "You must be wearing off on me."

_+JLU+_

The tower was quiet. It was early still and many of the heroes had worked themselves to the point of exhaustion. J'onn remained on monitor duty. Martian days were only 36 minutes longer than earth days but J'onn had volunteered to take watch. It would be one of his last shifts on this magnificent structure. He just wanted some quiet time in what had become his home.

Living on earth among humans –many of whom were wary of meta-humans and aliens- was not a situation he was eager to try. He'd also lose the solitude the tower provided. Telepathic abilities are great in theory but he knew that once he was among the people it would get very noisy inside his head. He could tune most of it out but there were times when the strain broke his defences and overwhelmed him.

"Morning, J'onn." John Stweart walked into the monitor room blowing on a cup of coffee.

"Good morning. You were instructed to sleep-in."

"Can't help it. I've always been an early riser. First on the beach and all that." Stewart noticed a blue light on the console started blinking. "Looks like trouble."

J'onn too noticed the alert. "It appears to be trouble in Central City." They were both silent for a few seconds.

Yes, Central was Flash territory.

Yes, Wally was down there.

Yes, they'd never hear the end of it if they go down there to help and he doesn't need it.

But, if he does need help and they don't go…

"We've repaired two of the Javelin's."

John's ring lit up and he was bathed in a green aura. "I've got my own method of transport."

"Shayera will not appreciate you method." Hawkgirl had never taken well to being ferried around by other heroes, only accepting help when it as necessary. She would prefer the Javelin but he didn't see what that had to do with anything.

The door to the room swished open. "What's going on?"

J'onn just smiled. He couldn't read Shayera's mind, nor any Hawk-person's but he could still sense it.

"Trouble in Central City. I'm going to check it out."

"I'll go with you."

John new better than to argue with her. She was just as worried about Flash as he was. They nearly collided with Wonder Woman as they exited.  
"Trouble in Central," Shayera explained quickly and sidestepped the Amazon.

Diana didn't even pause. A quick pivot and she was going with them. John stopped.

Was this really practical?

"We don't all need to go."

The two women didn't even pause. "Fine. Stay here then," the winged woman called over her shoulder.

John caught up with them before they took off.

_+JLU+_

An hour and a half after Dick had woken Wally they were working on their third restaurant. Each one had 'all you can eat breakfast' deals but Wally's appetite was fiercer than ever and he could easily eat each establishment out of business. So when they started getting glares from the owners they left.

Hence, restaurant number three.

Thankfully, Wally was not longer inhaling the food but he didn't show signs of stopping. His stomach seemed to be co-operating today. Yesterday much of what he'd tried to eat had ended up coming back up. What was the term those Doctor's used? Emesis?

"Aren't you going to eat?" Wally asked of his companion before cramming half a muffin into his mouth.

"You know watching you eat makes me sick." It was a joke. Wally knew it. Dick knew it. But to the casual eavesdropper it would have sounded like an insult.

Wally just laughed. He finished off his very large glass of orange juice and let out a small burp.

"Feel better?"

"A little. You're not going to eat that, are you?" Before Dick could answer his muffin was gone.

"…I suppose not." Dick wasn't hungry but he was at least trying to make it look like it was both of them eating all the food.

"Wally!" They turned to look at a man approaching them.

West recognized the voice. This was the last place Wally would have suspected to find him. "Hi, Nick. What are you doing here? You hate the food here?" He looked pointedly at the bagel and coffee in his hands.

"I guess I got hooked on it. It's your fault you know."

"Well, it's cheap. And it keeps your immune system on its toes."

"Right," was the dubious response. The dark eyes shifted to Wally's friend who had been sizing up this guy the same way he did all people he met for the first time. Fancy suit, expensive cologne, impeccable hair, shiny grad ring, Rolex watch –this guy seemed more the type to be hanging around Bruce.

"Nick McKay," he introduced himself and after shifting his purchases to his left hand he offered his right in a handshake.

"Oh! Dick this is Nick." A strange smile broke out on Wally's face and Dick knew he was amused by the rhyme -such a simpleton sometimes.

There was a pause were Grayson just stared. Just as the pause was reaching the threshold to awkward Dick grasped the offered hand. "Nice to meet you." The blank yet calculating look was still there as they shook hands making Nick's smile somewhat strained.

Wally sighed mentally –typical Dick. "Don't mind him. The early hour has made him cranky." He ignored the kick he received under the table.

Nick extracted his hand from the iron grip carefully hiding the wince. He turned back to West. "I'm surprised to see you at his hour. You're usually a late riser."

How the would you know? Dick thought but didn't ask.

"Extenuating circumstances," West replied.

Since when did Wally know the word 'extenuating'? Dick sipped his water. Or 'circumstance'?

"Well, I have to get to work. I hope to see you around." Wally smiled falsely, but McKay didn't notice. He turned to Wally's friend. "Dick." He nearly spat the name.

Grayson just glared until the jerk was out of earshot and then shifted his gaze to Wally. "Who is he?"

"Just a friend." Wally was a terrible liar. Always had been and always would be. It was a good thing that Wally had no idea. It made getting information easier.

"Just a friend?" It was clear from his tone that Dick didn't believe him. He watched Wally squirm.

"Uh-huh." The red-head forked a large piece of a pancake into his mouth to save him from further speech.

The explosion in the distance provided another distraction. A glance out the window, a glance at each other, a couple of bucks left at the table and they were gone.

_+JLU+_

At his computer Batman was trying to interpret some confusing data. He'd been up the whole night as usual but he wasn't tired yet. He'd feel the lack of sleep in a few hours but for now he had work that had to be done.

He was covertly using a Wayne Tech satellite orbiting earth to monitor the skies for activity. A few weeks ago on the tower he'd observed some strange readings from the sensors. At first glance it looked like background noise but it was too ordered to be random. Unable to find a source for the signal he set out to monitor the skies for another such occurrence.

There had been three more. Two had occurred when he'd been busy with League and Luthor and one more had occurred this past night. He didn't know what it meant but he'd figure it out.

A secondary computer screen blinked to life showing a muted report of a battle occurring in Central City. His eyes remained on the screen longer than was warranted. Even when he went back to deciphering his scans he didn't turn the media stream off. In fact a few seconds later he turned on the audio.

"-confirmed that there is only one man. He's armed with a very unusual weapon. It appears to decompose anything that it is aimed at. Cornered in the busy intersection of Main and Hanover, he's managed to keep police at bay. The Flash has…" The female reporter paused to take a note from off-screen and read it. Batman waited patiently for her to finish what she had been saying about the Flash. She never did.

"We've just received unconfirmed information about the identity of the Bank robber. Thirty-five year old Keegan Strom, a local resident-"

Batman immediately input the name into his database. The results were not spectacular; theft, assault, and a whole host of misdemeanour charges. He turned back to the news. Judging from the footage this one, normal, no-name man had caused a lot of damage. Where did he get the tools to do it?

Alfred pulled the pendulum of the grandfather clock with one hand while balancing the loaded tray with the other. The sun was barely up but the trusty butler was wide awake. If there was one thing that working in Wayne manor guaranteed, it was strange hours.

He began descending the many steps to the bat cave.

"Master Bruce, I've brought you some…"

He arrived just in time to see the hangar doors closing. The Bat-wing was gone as was Batman. Alfred shook his head and ascended the stairs.

"If he wants to eat his breakfast cold, that's fine by me."

Another explosion rocked the ground knocking unsuspecting spectators to the earth. A quick detour to change and the Flash was on scene. The type of destruction he witnessed upon arriving was out of place in downtown Central City –downtown Apocalypse, maybe. Entire structures had been reduced to rubble but the surroundings were strangely untouched. One of the cop cruisers was a mass of twisted and charred metal, apparently the source of the explosion that they'd heard a few minutes ago.

In the thick of it all was Strom, large weapon in his hands and a bigger smile on his face. He was taking cover behind the tall white roman-like columns at the entrance of the bank. He'd been too slow in his heist or the police too quick in their arrival and the robbery had turned to a stand-off. Still, Strom looked proud of himself, not worried in the least. Wally felt like making him very sorry.

He took off for the criminal but Strom had not missed the appearance of the speedster (bright red suit and all). He fired a shot in the hero's path. The blast itself was easy enough to dodge but Strom was just getting started.

The weakness of every hero was the people they were trying to protect. Strom aimed at a nearby gas station. At first nothing seemed to happen but everyone new it wouldn't last. Cracks began to form, materials decomposed and liquid began to drip out a spread in rainbow pools.

The smell of the gasoline was quickly circulated by the breeze. Bystanders began to run while they still could. "As long as there's no ignition source we'll be okay," an officer said. The problem was that Strom knew that too.

He pulled out a regular gun, small calibre, and fired at damaged station. The sound of the bullet ricocheting off metal surface incited further panic and ignited the spilt gas. The Flash sped past the small bit of burning gas before it could get to the main tanks and his vortex managed to put out the flames.

Keegan was not taking very well to being thwarted. "Fastest man alive, huh?" He took aim again with his gun. "Let's see how fast you really are."

Several shots rang out is succession. A blur of red and then there was stillness. Flash opened his fist and tilted his hand. Out dropped five bullets.

"If I counted correctly, you're out of bullets." Flash sped towards the assailant only to be stopped short by a sudden cry.

"No! Don't!"

Many people turned just in time to watch the small flickering object fall into a dark hole. The metal covering usually present had disintegrated leaving the port open. Below were the large tanks of gasoline that fed the pumps. The Flash sped over but before he could reach the match the gas in the air ignited. There was an intense wave of heat before the concussive blast knocked him into the air. Buildings shook, air was sucked out of lungs and the fire engulfed everything nearby, including the pyromaniac that had dropped the match. The flames crawled down the streets and high into the air.

Flash managed to land on his feet but the force of the blast and his momentum carried him further. He tumbled for several yards before sliding to a stop. The deafening sound had faded to a reverberating echo. The bright flash of light had vanished. Only further destruction was left behind.

The front of his red costume was scorched black and he had the acrid taste of soot in his mouth. His head was still spinning from the blast and his unwanted flight so getting to his feet was difficult. Once he was relatively stable he surveyed the surroundings.

Many others were just coming around, others weren't moving, yet Strom thought it was funny. The grating laughter was the last straw. Wally didn't think. He ran at Strom dodging the blasts from his strange and powerful weapon with sharp changes in his course. He cut particularly close past one blast putting himself within striking distance. He pulled his fist back to deliver a blow but the ground beneath him gave way creating a gaping hole in the middle of what was once a busy intersection. The Flash fell through but his speed carried him to the other edge of the hole where the breath was knocked out of him but the ledge provided him purchase to hold on.

Prior to his arrival one of Strom's shots hit the ground there weakening it and the infrastructure beneath. The red clad hero dangled in the opening, his feet just a few feet from the putrid waste flowing through the now exposed main sewer pipe. The smell was suffocating.

"Times like now, I wish I could fly," Flash mumbled as he scraped his way out of the chasm.

A voice too close startled the speedster. "That's exactly where I want you." Flash looked up and right down the barrel of a large silver and blue gun, the most destructive hand-held weapon he could ever remember seeing, the one that Strom had been using to destroyed the area.

Flash saw the twitch of Strom's trigger finger but before enough pressure could be applied a red fist connected with Strom's jaw. He landed a few feet away head ringing and his precious toy just out of reach. Flash stood over the man, arms crossed and face angry.

The fallen man reached for the weapon only to have his hand knocked away by some kind of throwing disc. Another two embedded themselves into the gun causing it to spark and crackle with electricity and some other strange energy. That couldn't be a good sign.

Unarmed and out-classed, Strom should have given up. "No."

Flash tilted his head. He'd heard many bad guys say the same thing when faced with their defeat but this man's tone was different. He was planning something.

The police had managed to make their way over, cautious of the damaged and weakened ground. On a nearby roof top Nightwing was joined by three league members.

"You missed the party," he told them without turning.

"Is Flash okay?" Diana asked.

"He's fine. This block will need a lot or reconstruction but no fatalities."

"I'm going for a closer look," and Green Lantern quickly made his way to Flash's side.

"Hey Kid,"

Flash just gave him a tired smile. He looked completely winded. John decided that after this situation was taken care of he was going to bring Flash back to the watch tower and assign some other members to temporarily watch Central and Keystone. Flash was in no shape to be taking down psychos.

Strom was being placed in handcuffs by the police and, as so many criminals were prone to do, he was putting up a token struggle. Something made John look to an alley. The walls were scorched from the gas station explosion and smoke hung heavily in the air obscuring his vision but he saw someone; a tall man, wearing a hat and -from the tiny red glow- smoking a cigarette. Stewart will swear to the day he dies that the man smirked at him. Just then a commotion broke out and one of the cops shouted 'bomb'.

The damaged gun came back to life and began glowing bright blue. Strom yelled something about defeating everyone but his rant faded into the background. GL was quick to enclose the gun in a shield but just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. It was a tense few seconds they waited for something else to happen. They would be happily disappointed.

Strom struggled angrily, yelling about how he was promised to win by some man, a Dr. V. GL ignored him and slowly approached and examined the weapon. He hoped that the damage done by Nightwing's batarangs had somehow disarmed it. What he found was worse. The batarangs had damaged some of the wiring and created and leak in what looked like a radiation containment shield. When he flipped up a panel on the side he was even more dismayed.

"This thing is still going to blow. The timer's damaged. It's counting randomly." As John spoke a blue numbers flashed on a small screen.

…14…..7…..29….2….55…

"We have to get it out-"

…11…26…0.

The gun/bomb in his hands had just begun to light up as it detonated when it vanished suddenly. An almost instantaneous trail of blue light and a blindingly bright explosion some distance away told them all that the Flash had saved them, again. They waited. The sound of the explosion shocked them all when it finally reached them. What shocked them even more was that it arrived before the Flash. They continued to wait. Strom was laughing almost maniacally but a subtle elbow to his gut by one of the cops had him doubled over and gasping for breath.

GL and the others waited and the tension climbed. "Come on, Kid."

The Flash didn't return.

_**End Chapter 2 – Good Luck is the Companion of Courage**_

Sagga Bott…


	3. Chapter 3

Part 0: Shadow of Youth

PG-13

Summary: Post DWF. As an accident saves Flash from his own metabolism (but not without leaving some changes of its own) an unknown benefactor is gathering information on the League's greatest weakness.

Disclaimer: The DC characters are not mine. I'm just playing with them. They'll be returned…eventually, not in good condition but that can hardly be blamed on me!

Author's Note: Back for more are you? Mwa ha ha ha haaa.

PLEASE READ THE A/N IN CHAPTER 1 SO YOU ARE NOT CONFUSED LATER!

**Chapter 3 - Omne Initium Est Difficile**

The agile craft hit a sudden patch of turbulence. No doubt it had something to do with the bright explosion he'd just witnessed. The sensors had also picked up an earlier explosion but he could not ascertain the cause of either.

He was just at the outskirts of Central city when he heard Green Lantern's voice coming through the communications unit. He was calling for Flash, roving through the different frequencies hoping for a response. Batman opened his comm unit to all channels also listening for a response that wouldn't come.

"Batman to Green Lantern. What's going on?"

"Some strange weapon detonated. Flash got it away from the city in time but he's not responding."

Batman altered the course of his plane. "I'm heading to the site of the explosion." At the speed he was going, he was nearly there before the end of his sentence.

The mighty Missouri River flowed calmly through a thin stretch of green but around a bend the ground and vegetation on either river bank were disturbed by the blast. Some trees and parts of the earth were still smoking. The river carried bits of debris downstream washing away valuable evidence. More importantly and fortunately the Bat-Wing's scanners didn't detect any people in the area.

Flash had picked a good spot to take the bomb. The river separated the twin cities of Central and Keystone and there were no residences nearby. There were some industrial plants but those were far enough away to avoid damage and keep the workers safe. It was mostly land that was undeveloped due to the zoning by-laws present in both cities in order to keep the small patch of pristine green clean. Some of it was charred now but more troubling was the radiation.

From the decay rate the radioactive isotope responsible for the readings had a short half-life and already it did not pose a great risk but the radiation was unusual. He'd study the scans in more detail later.

Landing the plane in the brush wasn't difficult, skilled pilot that he was. Gathering burnt pieces of a red costume from the river bank, that was difficult.

"Batman to Flash." It was useless he knew but that didn't dissuade him. "Batman to Flash. Respond." Batman continued to look around mentally making a map of where there were important pieces of debris to be collected later. "Batman to Flash." Still nothing so he opted for the low tech method.

"Flash!"

Some ways down the river a small form lay on the riverbank just starting to regain consciousness. The ground was wet and the cold of it was seeping through his shirt.

Dazed and confused he crawled away from the rushing water –he was pretty sure he couldn't swim. Climbing to his feet was simple enough but staying up proved difficult. He only took a few steps before he fell. Luckily he was fairly close to the ground to begin with.

Small hands wiped at his muddied face transferring the dirt to the sleeves of the too-big red shirt he was wearing. He didn't know where it came from but he didn't have anything else to wear.

The sound of cars was in the distance. Maybe he could find someone to take him to his home. Just as he was reaching the tree-line a call was carried by the wind to his ears. He paused and looked back but he couldn't see anyone and he didn't recognize the name the person was calling. He walked on.

Who was 'Flash'?

+JLU+

"Have they found him?"

"Not yet. They're still searching. There are many possibilities to be considered."

"There's one obvious possibility." The comm link between the two aliens was quiet for several seconds. "I'm going to go help. Superman out." J'onn would do what he could from the tower.

+JLU+

"-so of course the detectives have us rooting through the dumpsters looking for god-knows-what. Heaven forbid they should get mouldy food on their Gucci loafers."

The police officer took a sip of his coffee. This hands free headset in the patrol car was great. He could talk on the phone, drink coffee and drive. Now if only the other drivers on the road would stop slowing down whenever he was near. At this rate he'd never make it back to the station and he wanted to get some sleep. It had been a long shift –graveyard always was.

"I don't think they get paid that much more than us," the other party responded.

There was a flash of colour just next to the road and some instinct told the cop to investigate.

"Cam, I gotta go."

"What's up, Mike?"

He parked the car along the shoulder. "I don't know but something doesn't seem quite right. I'll call you later."

"If it's more about your adventures in dumpster-diving I think I've heard enough. See ya."

"Wise ass," the cop muttered as he stepped out of his cruiser and into the refreshing morning air. He hoped it wasn't something weird from that explosion. He'd listened to the reports on the police scanner, seen the bright explosion and heard it too. All he needed now was to encounter some weird mutant or alien or something freaky.

"That would just make my morning-" he stopped.

This wasn't a mutant or an alien as far as he could tell. It was a kid; bright red hair, fair skin, bright eyes and a little muddy. The child stared at him and then looked at the passing cars. He seemed more than a little confused.

"Hey there, little guy. You okay?" He approached slowly and crouched down.

"I'm lost."

"Well I'm here to help you. Can you tell me what your name is?"

The child eyed him for a long moment. "Wally."

"It's nice to meet you Wally. My name is Michael. How did you get out here?"

The little shoulders move up in a shrug drawing attention to the red shirt, several sizes too big for him. Mike recognized the logo on the front. "Are you a fan of the Flash?" What kid wasn't? Every Halloween in the twin cities most kids dressed up as the scarlet speedster.

"Who's that?" To say the officer was surprised would be an understatement. The kid honestly didn't seem to know who the city's hero was. "I want to go home," he announced suddenly.

"How about I tell you all about the Flash on the way?"

Mike waited for the response but he could tell that the child had already moved on to a different topic. "I'm hungry."

Mike smiled. "Okay. We'll get some food too."

After stopping at a fast food restaurant, they made it to the downtown police station in Keystone. Wally got a change of clothes but wouldn't give up his ripped Flash shirt. They decided to let him wear it like a cape rather than risk upsetting him.

"How is he?"

Michael and the inquiring officer looked over at the child playing with some toys at one of the desks in the crowded squad room. He was garnering a lot of attention from the female officers. Who could resist a child with big green eyes, red hair and a sweet smile?

"He's fine," Michael replied sourly.

"You're just sore because Carrie is giving him more attention than she gives to you in a month."

Michael ignored him. "Social Service is sending someone over. He doesn't know his address and he doesn't know how he got out by the river. Or he won't tell us. No cuts, injuries or signs of abuse. Nothing we can do for him here."

"What kind of parent lets their five year old outside on their own?"

"Not everybody gets the white picket fence." Mike glanced at the slightly older patrolman, "You know that."

+JLU+

The other League members, excluding J'onn and including Nightwing, had converged on the river to see the devastation first hand before splitting up to search for their missing friend. They weren't going to believe the Flash was dead until they had proof or all other possibilities had proven incorrect.

Shayera flew over the forested area and quickly came to a small highway that followed the river on the Keystone side. Maybe Wally got ride home. John had volunteered to check out Wally's apartment to see if he had gone back there. Batman was going to check through the computer systems of the hospitals to see if Flash or anyone matching Wally's description had been admitted. But out of all of them Dick was the closest to Wally and knew him best.

Shayera changed course to find the former Batman apprentice. He was on a rooftop not too far away. She landed behind him.

"Lost?" His tone was polite but he was clearly not interested in helping her. Wally always spoke highly of her to Dick. And Wally was a surprisingly good judge of character but everyone knew of the time she'd turned traitor.

"You know him best…"

He checked the screen of a small gadget before putting away. "Your point is…"

"You know where he would go if he was in trouble."

"Maybe I do." He took out a grappler and launched it. Shayera was very quickly alone on the rooftop.

"Definitely Batman's kid." She took flight, intent on following the young man rather than flying in circles like a demented bird.

+JLU+

_"Cops are this close to criminals," Rudolph West snarled bitterly as he worked at his small desk. Behind him in the dingy sparsely furnished apartment his young son sat listening. "Cops, crooks, if you're one you've got what it takes to be the other." _

_"I thought police were the good guys," the child commented innocently. That's what they'd said in school. Police helped people, caught bad guys. It was a simple distinction to Wally, uneducated about the complications of people and the world. Yet in some ways he would never change. His eyes saw the simplicity that often was overlooked in times of crisis and in some ways those eyes would never change._

_Rudolph turned to look at the child, his child, though some days he was in denial. His expression must have been harsh because Wally scooted further away from him, fear written clearly in his eyes. Had he said the wrong thing again? Wally wondered nervously. Was his Daddy going to get mad like he always did?_

_Wally shivered in relief when his father turned back to what he'd been doing ignoring the kid like he usually did. With nothing else to do, no toys, no TV, nobody else to take care of him, Wally sat silentl,y arms hugging his knees. It was just him and his father, Rudolph. They were all each other had, a team of two, or so Wally had thought. _

+JLU+

Wally looked over his shoulder to make sure he wasn't being followed. His Daddy had been right. You can't trust the police. He'd heard them talking. They said they would find his home but they had called the kid-police. They'd visited his house before and he didn't like them –weird people in ugly suits threatening to take him from his father –no he didn't like them at all. He was not going to let them separate him from is father, so he'd escaped when they weren't looking. He was surprised that they didn't catch him but he'd run as fast as he could and made it outside really quickly. Those big fat grown-ups were too slow to keep up.

He headed in the general direction of where he thought home was. He was soon in an area of the city called 'Crossed Tracks'. The neighbourhood derived its name from the 'wrong side of the tracks' idiom.

To Wally though, it was beginning to feel more familiar. He was almost home. He remembered these buildings but it looked like something had happened to them. Where the variety store had been yesterday was now a boarded up building. Exposed windows had been shattered and stained with dirt and grime. Everything looked older.

Eventually he came to his building, or what he thought was his building. It too was falling apart. It hadn't been the Ritz to begin with but it had not been this dilapidated either. Windows were missing. The barely standing brick walls had been tagged with graffiti and even the graffiti was looking old and faded.

A sound down the road caught his attention. A group of men were coming down the street, talking and cursing loudly. He'd seen guys like this before. He'd been told to stay away from them. He didn't think now was the time to disobey. He dashed into the old four-story apartment building, managing to slip through a gap in the decaying wood boards over the entrance, hopefully before he was spotted.

Inside it smelt funny and the dust made him cough but there was enough light making it through the gaps in the boarded windows for his eyes to adjust. The stairs were right where they were supposed to be but the debris on them made the ascent to the second floor treacherous. When he finally made it he found the door to his home was missing. The old dusty furniture inside wasn't familiar and his Daddy was nowhere in sight.

He'd tried not to be scared but it was hard. Nothing was the same and there was nobody to ask for help. Even his neighbours were gone. He began to cry. Tears marked the dusty face even as he tried to wipe them away while sobs filled that small corner of the empty building. He sat down on the dirty floor and pulled the red shirt draped over his back around to form a crude blanket. Someone will come for me, he thought to himself but he was still scared and the tears still came.

"…Daddy…"

+JLU+

"This place is a dump."

Nightwing didn't turn to face her. "Nobody asked you to come."

"This is where he would go?"

Grayson said nothing. He was trying to figure out exactly where Wally's place had been. Wally had told him a bit about it but Dick had never been there himself so he had to work with the description Wally had given him. Unfortunately the landmarks Wally had used in his description had changed.

It was some faint yelling from a block away that compelled him to pick that direction. He would be glad he did.

Just as they landed on a less sturdy rooftop a child slipped out of a small opening in a boarded-up building. Before he could dash away a hand slipped thought the boards and grabbed the red shirt that had been trailing behind.

"Where the hell you think you're going?" The man asked with menace. He forced the opening larger and he and three others came out.

"Let me go!"

A flash of silver and a switchblade was pointed at him. "Not likely kid. This is our turf and we don't take kindly to trespass-" Suddenly the man was flat on his back and a beautiful but angry-looking angel was glaring down at him.

"I don't take kindly to bullies and scum."

The other punks didn't waste a second before jumping to action. One ran, recognizing the Justice League member. The other two charged pulling out their own weapons. Shayera had them disarmed and in enough pain to make them reconsider in ten seconds flat.

"Round two?" She unclipped her mace from her belt. They beat a hasty retreat even if they limped.

"Where's the kid?" Nightwing asked looking around. He'd seen him take off during the fight but he'd moved so quickly.

"Probably blocks away." She put her mace away. "Let's go, we need to find Flash."

Now Dick did look at her. "Didn't you recognize him?"

"Who?"

"The child."

"Last time I checked the Flash was a little taller than that."

"I know it was him."

Shayera wondered silently if he was suffering from dementia. Maybe the explosion had given him a concussion or something. A small movement a few yards beyond Nightwing caught her eye. She approached cautiously and a small face peaked out –red hair and green eyes that she knew.

She didn't have time to say anything before he was gone only a trail of dust left behind.

"Now do you believe me?"

Shayera was on the comm to the others immediately trying to explain the strange situation and calling for Superman get there now. He was the only one fast enough to have a chance of catching Wally.

+JLU+

He was lost again. This place wasn't at all familiar. He felt the despair and tears creeping up on him when suddenly there was a shadow over him, a big shadow.

"Wally?"

He turned around to find a giant man with a big 'S' on his chest. He didn't even give the guy a chance. He just ran.

"Have you found him?" a voice in his ear asked.

"I'm working on it." He took off, flying at full speed. He suddenly passed Wally and had to back track. The child had tripped but his high-speed fall didn't faze him. As soon as he saw the guy in the red cape coming again he took off.

His feet were beginning to feel hot and he was starting to tire when without warning his feet weren't touching the ground anymore. The flying guy had caught up and picked him up mid-stride.

"Let me go!" he screeched but when he looked down he was high above the ground an instinct took over. He grabbed on to the flying man and closed his eyes.

"It's okay, Wally. I won't drop you."

Wally chanced a look at the man and was greeted with a soft sincere smile.

"Who are you?"

The smile became sad. "A friend."

"Can you take me to my Daddy?"

How was he supposed to respond to that? As far as he knew Wally was an orphan.

"I'll see what I can do."

End Chapter 3 – Every Beginning is Difficult

I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed the story so far. I really appreciate the responses and it's good to know people are enjoying the story. Now I must apologize for taking so long to up date. Life keeps getting in my way. Hopefully the next chapter will be out sooner.

Sagga Bott…

P.S. It was recently brought to my attention that I wasn't accepting anonymous reviews. Sorry about that. I've fixed it. :)


	4. Chapter 4

Part 0: Shadow of Youth

PG-13

Summary: Post DWF. As an accident saves Flash from his own metabolism (but not without leaving some changes of its own) an unknown benefactor is gathering information on the League's greatest weakness.

Disclaimer: The DC characters are not mine. I'm just playing with them. They'll be returned…eventually, not in good condition but that can hardly be blamed on me!

Author's Note: I must apologize to philosopher David K. Lewis (1941-2001). I've used some of his metaphysical principles in this chapter and undoubtedly I've messed it up. To any philosophers reading this story: Please don't hurt me!

**Chapter 4 Magnum Bonum**

The staring was getting old but there weren't a lot of words that could adequately fill the stunned silence. This is Wally? They continued to stare at him. Wally stared back. He'd never seen people in costumes like these. Was it Halloween? He wanted to ask but they were kind of scary so he stayed quiet.

They'd brought him to the orbiting Watch Tower, which hadn't been too difficult. The Javelin that Diana, Shayera and Green Lantern had taken down from the tower had provided transport, for all of them, back up. Little Wally had been noticeably nervous about flying in the plane and it had been a struggle initially to get him strapped in but Wonder Woman sat next to him and easily kept him calm during the flight. "A woman's touch," she had responded at the somewhat surprised looks the others were giving her and Wally.

The journey had been quiet –even Wally had been relatively well behaved. He'd looked around but had been silent for the majority of the trip. They'd all surmised it was only a matter of time before he was running around and trying to push all the buttons.

With Wally now settled on a bed in one of the Med Bay's private rooms the research into this strange scenario began. In the next room J'onn and Batman were running some tests to determine what exactly had happened to change Wally into a child with no memory of them.

Suddenly the bed, which only a moment ago the child had been seated on, was empty and the heroes looked around frantically. The doors to the hallway wouldn't open for Wally but there were adjacent rooms, plenty of places to hide and even more things that they had to keep away from an inquisitive child.

"Looking for this?"

Batman guided Wally out of the lab and back in to the private room. Batman's voice was more amused than anything but Wally looked a little perturbed by the encounter with the Dark Knight. He dashed for Superman.

"I guess he doesn't like you very much," observed Shayera. Batman made a non-committal sound. Shay looked down at Wally who was staring curiously at Batman. "It's okay. He doesn't bite hard." Wide green-eyes looked up at her.

"He bites?"

"He doesn't bite, Wally. She just has a bad sense of humour." The tall dark man smiled at him and Wally smiled back forgetting what they'd been talking about just a second before.

J'onn walked into the room with some papers in hand.

"So what have you found? How do we get our Wally back?" asked John.

J'onn gave them his findings. "The radiation had a signature I have only seen when we dealt with David Clinton, the inventor of the Chrono-suit. When he travelled through time there was a large burst of this radiation. We found the same readings in the soil at the explosion site and even more on Wally."

Diana shook her head. "That doesn't explain how Wally was turned into a child."

"He wasn't," stated the resident Bat.

"Clearly, he is a child."

Batman interrupted to explain. "We all were at some point. Lewis philosophised that people and objects are a series of causally connected time-slices and a collection of these slices over time gives us a whole person. What may have happened is that the explosion caused a regression in Wally's personal-time to the point of," gestured vaguely to the child in question, "this Wally. If he was just transformed into a child he should still know us."

Though they still seemed somewhat sceptical or confused Batman could see that Wonder Woman, GL and Superman looked more willing to accept the explanation. They were no doubt recalling time they'd been turned into children by Morgan Le Fay to thwart her son Mordred and they'd retained their memories.

"Then where's the Wally that should be here? And why does he still have his speed?" Shayera didn't understand what Batman had said but she wasn't interested in Earth philosophers. She wanted her friend back.

"His connection to the speed force must still be in tact. As for our Wally, technically, he's right here. To get him back we just need to find a way to undo the regression –get Wally's personal time to match back up with external time."

John knew it sounded easier than it was going to be. Nothing about time travel was ever easy. That's why people should just leave time alone.

Wally had listened but he didn't understand. Besides there were more pressing issues that required his attention.

"I'm hungry." Not a second after he'd voiced his complaint he was off at a run heading for the doors that would open for him. Unfortunately those doors lead to the lab. Batman had kept him out of trouble the last time but there were many chemicals that could be ingested and the results could easily be fatal.

A brilliant interception by Superman just as the doors were opening kept Wally safe.

"You can't keep running off like that."

"Why?"

Clark hesitated. He'd heard conversations that started like this; one 'why' lead to another and another. Superman looked to the others for help.

"Since you can keep up with him you've been drafted for baby-sitting duty," J'onn announced.

"I'm not a baby," came the quick and loud protest.

J'onn couldn't help a fond smile to the outraged child as he recalled his own children voicing similar sentiments. "In the meantime we will continue to search for a way to return Flash to normal."

Shayera thought of the man who'd been using the gun in Central City yelling about a partner. Strom didn't look the type to create such a strange and powerful device on his own but he could lead them to the person who had and they could be persuaded to give up the design of the weapon.

"I'm going to Central City. I'll get that robber, Strom, to tell me who his partner was."

"I didn't know you did interrogations," commented the Batman.

"I can be pretty persuasive." She patted her mace.

Batman raised an eyebrow behind the cowl. "Let me know when you have something. I'll be here with J'onn."

"Don't forget to tell Nightwing what's going on. He'll be worried." Ever the boyscout Superman couldn't forget the man they'd left on earth. Batman glanced at him but didn't respond. He and J'onn walked back into the lab needing to get information from their radiation samples before too much decayed away.

"I'm hungry." Wally was standing at the doors that lead to the corridor but it remained shut.

Superman sighed.

"Don't worry," John patted his shoulder. "Look how small he is. He can't eat that much."

+_JLU_+

Smoke curled lazily in the air creating a grey haze. The tip of the cigarette lit up as he took another drag. He held the smoke in before exhaling using his mouth to create rings of smoke. He smiled at his work.

"You look like you're enjoying that." The waitress refilled the empty coffee mug of the strange patron. A few inches over six feet tall and appearing to be approaching forty-five years or so, he'd come in just a few minutes after that terrible explosion near the river. He'd spent several minutes looking at the menu and asking questions about the different choices before settling on coffee, no cream, no sugar.

"It's a fascinating habit." He watched the tip of the cigarette glow. "It's poisonous, ultimately fatal, and yet so alluring…"

"It also stains your teeth, gives you bad breath and makes everything you eat taste like paper. Oh, and it's a bitch to quit." She was clearly speaking from experience.

"Which begs the question: why start?" The man looked at her as though she had the answer.

"…Um…I don't know…seemed like a good idea at the time…"

The man smiled and took another drag. "Enjoying, accepting, even condoning behaviour that leads to your demise. You're a strange species." Grey smoke drifted out of his mouth in slow waves. "And there's so much more of it left to explore."

The waitress was becoming unsettled by the man's tone and left to tend to another table. Feeling a little better a few minutes later she went back to the table only to find that the man was gone. He'd left a twenty for four dollars worth of coffee. Creepy but a good tipper –she pocketed the extra money –there were worse combinations.

+_JLU_+

The patter of small feet moving rapidly ended just behind the door to Clark's apartment. After a pause where the person on the other side struggled with the locks it opened a crack.

"You can't answer the door," came a stern but tired voice from inside.

"Why not?" a higher, younger voice asked.

"Just because…" Clark finished lamely. The patter of feet became more distant as the child ran off. J'onn and Diana let themselves the rest of the way in and it became abundantly clear that no man, not even a super-man could keep up with a child-size speedster. Clark's usually immaculate apartment was a disaster. There were pillows and couch cushion everywhere but the couch. It looked like something had spilt on the floor. An empty pizza box had yet to be cleared from the dining table. The TV was on and spouting the latest in indoctrinating children's program. All in all it was a strange sight.

"Hi!" Wally ran over to the newcomers. Now that he was feeling less uncertain he was more like himself.

"Hello, Wally. Are you keeping Clark busy?" Diana asked with a smile.

"Uh huh! We had pizza and soda!"

"You gave him sugar?" J'onn asked.

Clark shook his head tiredly. "I don't know what I was thinking."

"Who are you?" Wally suddenly asked of J'onn. The Martian had changed to his human form to be more inconspicuous.

"We met on the watchtower." He morphed back to his usual appearance.

"Oh! Mr. Green!"

Diana and J'onn looked at Clark. "He's got names for everybody, but we've had the discussion about keeping it all a secret."

Still a ladies man, even at three and a half feet tall, Wally dragged Diana to see the view. J'onn and Clark moved to the kitchen where they wouldn't be overheard.

"Any progress?"

"None that will help Wally but we've found something…unsettling." J'onn pulled out a small piece of debris. It had been cleaned of the carbon residue and the shiny metal underneath was visible.

"What is it?"

"Advanced circuitry, not available on commercial markets." He handed the piece to Clark. "Look closely."

Using his super-vision Clark focused on the circuitry and came across a small laser engraving. "LexCorp."

"We have no evidence that Luthor is involved directly."

"Then what's this?"

"Circumstantial."

Kent didn't agree. He knew Luthor. The man had an obsession with Superman and the League but what was even more dangerous was his obsession with power and his willingness to use it for personal gain.

Clark changed the subject. "Well I have some good news. The accident seems to have fixed Wally's metabolism. He still eats a lot but for him I think it's a normal amount."

J'onn was about to say something when they heard Wally.

"Wow!" His exclamation carried to the kitchen and had the two men heading over even before Diana could call them.

From Clark's high-rise apartment there was a spectacular view of the cities south-east side. But it wasn't the view that captured their interest now. It was the ball of fire rising from the business district.

"That's near the Lex Corp Building." Their fight with Luthor and Braniac had destroyed the top five floors of the building but the rest of the structure and all the valuable technologies inside were still intact. Even with the company's leader in prison awaiting trial Lex Corp was still a leader in technological development.

Clark pulled off his shirt revealing the primary colours of his Superman costume. "J'onn can you watch Wally? Diana and I will check this out."

J'onn, simply nodded. Clark opened the sliding glass doors of the balcony and he and Wonder Woman flew towards the disturbance.

By the time they arrived the assailants had left. The police were beginning their investigation but hadn't found the calling cards of the usual criminals. Even what had been stolen was not the most valuable technology. The current president of the company was speaking with the police but he didn't look like he had any insight into what had happened.

Superman picked up one of the items that had been stolen but accidentally dropped during the escape. It was just a piece of electronics hardware, nothing special about it. Not even very advanced and certainly not worth blowing a two-story hole in the side of the building. This didn't make sense.

"It doesn't look like we can help here," Superman said to Wonder Woman. She agreed. The emergency personnel had everything under control.

"Let's go."

+_JLU_+

"Did you get anything?"

Shayera landed on the roof of a high-rise condominium in Central City and sighed. "Only the name Dr. V. Strom says he gave him the weapon. He doesn't know anything else."

"I'll inform Batman."

"John, have you heard anything from Clark? How's Wally doing?"

"J'onn's with him right now but the kid seems okay. Hard to keep up with, but that's nothing new." John waited for her to say something else. "Shayera?"

"Yeah, John," she responded distractedly.

"Are you alright?"

He couldn't see her shake her head through the comm line. "You should have seen the neighbourhood, John. I can't believe Wally lived there. I didn't know things had been that bad for him." She'd taken into account that many years had passed so the buildings had decayed but it was easy to tell that it had not been a very nice neighbourhood back then either.

"You'd never guess by the way he acts." It was hard to believe that someone who'd apparently gone through so much at a young age was still as care-free and friendly as Wally was. John didn't know the whole story. Wally didn't talk about it and John knew not to ask.

"He never talks about it."

"There's not reason to. What would it change?"

Shayera crossed her arms and glared out across the city. "Maybe Batman would be less of a jerk." From across the link she heard John laugh. There were just some people who annoyed her. Batman was among them. He was smart and an important member of the league but he was also arrogant and there were just some things that Shayera didn't trust him with. Maybe that was the problem with the league. They recognized each other strengths but had trouble dealing with their differences. Those problems had nearly brought down the league before they'd even begun but since then the disputes had been tempered.

"Well, I'm going to see if 'the jerk' has made any progress. Why don't you check up with J'onn and the others in Metropolis."

"Alright. Shayera out."

+_JLU_+

Superman and Wonder Woman had decided to take a detour on the way back to Clark's apartment –a long detour. And three hours later they were no closer to figuring out what was going on.

They'd gone to see Luthor at the penitentiary he was being held at just outside Metropolis. His close encounter with Braniac had done some damage to Luthor's psyche and while his mind was still razor sharp and his wit still biting, the voices only he could hear were unnerving. After getting through all the red tape and the procedures the corrections officers insisted were necessary they'd finally been allowed to see Luthor. Lex had only laughed at their accusations and as usual insulted the League and ridiculed their efforts at world peace.

"This is getting us nowhere." Diana had turned a walked out, her patience lost at the third checkpoint they'd been made to go through. Superman hesitated before following her but Luthor's next words had him turning back.

"Your efforts have only inconvenienced me." Luthor smirked at him. "Close the door on your way out."

Superman looked back at the fallen villain trying not to hear how much Luthor had sounded like Brainiac. If ever there was a merger to be feared it was between those two. He closed the heavy door.

Luthor listened for several minutes making sure that they were gone. He stood up and went to the small barred window afforded to his cell. Metropolis, his shining jewel was not far in the distance. He could almost touch it. When he did, he'd touch his destiny, he'd put into practice what was inevitable, but first things first.

There was a certain hyperactive speed demon that needed to be dealt with. He'd underestimated that boy. He would not do so again. His new partner had forced him into a compromise that would put his plans on hold but he could not do it alone, not from prison, so he'd agreed. His partner wanted to make his own assessment of the League before they made a move. Until he had assessed to his heart's content Luthor was pretty much out of the loop. Hopefully that stupid Doctor had not gotten them into trouble already.

+_JLU_+

The group stared at the goodies on the table. It was everything they needed to take down their enemies. And all of it was top grade. Now was the problem of the price. They guy kept saying it was free but nothing was ever free.

Light bulbs dangled from the low ceiling casting shadows over the suspiciously generous man's face.

"What do we owe you?" a female of the group asked.

"Nothing, just use these well." He turned to go.

"Why are you doing this?"

The stranger continued slowly away, the shadows engulfing him. "A test."

"What happens if we fail?"

"This test isn't for you." He opened the exit, the light from outdoors making him a shadow in the doorway. "Your people failed long before today." The heavy door slammed shut under its own weight. The group of men and women stood in silence.

"Weirdo."

+_JLU_+

By the time Clark and Diana returned the sun had set and Wally was fast asleep on the pull out couch. Shayera and J'onn were in the kitchen conversing softly.

"He looks like a little angel," Diana commented as she and Clark joined them.

Shayera laughed. "Only when he's asleep. When he's awake he's still Wally."

"What have you found out about the attack on Lex Corp?" J'onn asked. He'd managed to see a few minutes of news coverage of the event on TV but Wally had protested and they had been forced to watch cartoons.

"Nothing important was stolen. Leaving us to wonder; why such a large explosion for something you can get almost anywhere?"

"Luthor was no help," added Diana. "He claims to know nothing about it."

"You don't believe him," J'onn inferred.

Diana wasn't sure. Compared to Superman and Batman her experience with Luthor was limited but the demented man in the small dark cell was not what she equated with a criminal genius.

Superman left the small group to changed into less conspicuous attire but upon returning stood quietly away from the group, thinking. Their brief encounter with Luthor at the jail had disturbed him. The amalgamation of his two greatest enemies had been the greatest nightmare he'd never imagined. During the battle he'd been determined to defeat Luthor but he hadn't figured out how. Even now he didn't know what he would have done if the Flash hadn't been there.

Clark walked out to the living room. Wally lay on the couch, a small hand curled into a loose fist next to his face. Clark drew closed the blinds to block out some of the bright lights of Metropolis, his city. He peeked out between the panels and stared at a small portion of what could have been lost. They all owed Flash a lot.

'He's their secret weapon,' he'd once overheard Green Arrow comment when some had inquired as to why Flash was part of the council when clearly he wasn't as mature as the rest of them.

Superman had been angry. Flash was a person, not a thing, and certainly not a weapon. But part of him had understood Green Arrow's comment and agreed –that had been the true source of his anger. He recognized Flash's potential for good and he recognized his potential for harm.

Speed is a powerful force. Maybe the others didn't see it. Maybe none of them wanted to see it, but Wally could be dangerous.

Yet with all that power at his disposal Wally was oblivious to it for the most part. Recently he'd learnt new tricks such as stealing and redirecting kinetic energy, and he'd been trifling with passing through solid matter but beyond that he had no designs on being anything other than a hero.

The Flash was a good guy. They all were. The young speedster reminded them at every turn. Whenever they doubted themselves, whenever their motives were in question, it was a simple statement delivered the way only the Flash could that brought them back from the brink.

We are the good guys.

End Chapter 4 A Great Good

I've only see the first couple of minutes of the first episode of season 5 of JL (or season 3 of JLU) so I decided to use the wacked-out Luthor in the fiction. I've been trying not to watch the new episodes since I don't want them to have too much of an influence on my fic, but I can only hold out for so long! Anyway, thanks for reading.

Sagga Bott…


	5. Chapter 5

Part 0: Shadow of Youth

PG-13

Summary: Post DWF. As an accident saves Flash from his own metabolism (but not without leaving some changes of its own) an unknown benefactor is gathering information on the League's greatest weakness.

Disclaimer: The DC characters are not mine. I'm just playing with them. They'll be returned…eventually, not in good condition but that can hardly be blamed on me!

Author's Note: Back for more are you? Mwa ha ha ha haaa.

PLEASE READ THE A/N IN CHAPTER 1 SO YOU ARE NOT CONFUSED LATER!

**Chapter 5 - Maxima Debetur Puero Reverentia**

The red digits blinked annoyingly in the otherwise peaceful apartment. Forty-two. Forty-two. Forty-two.

"I get the idea," Dick muttered to himself.

Wally had been 'missing' for over twenty days now and Dick had taken it upon himself to make sure his friend's place was okay and keep up the alibi that had been fed to his friends. Still, there were forty-two new messages waiting for him and Dick had cleared the machine just six days ago. Didn't these people have something else to do? He wasn't really angry but the obvious concern Wally's friends had for him just emphasized the distinct lack of friends in Dick's own life.

After college, after what happened between him, Bruce and Barbara, he'd moved away and lost contact with his college buddies. Not that they'd want to hang out with him now that he was just a bartender but he wasn't the same person as he was back then and he doubted that he'd be able to connect with them again. Somehow Wally had stayed close. Maybe since Wally had known him more as Robin, not the well behaved preppie, just another kid fighting crime, Dick had never really changed to him.

Dick began playing the messages writing down the few that were important as he looked around the small flat. He'd only seen Wally a few times since the accident that turned him into a five-year old. Dick had conversed with the child that had been one of his best friends. He'd asked simple questions about his family and his home.

Wally had talked for whole minutes (which was a long time for Wally) about his father. It was clear that Rudolph West was his son's hero. Dick could only smile sadly at the child. It hadn't happened to the kid yet but he estimated that it was only a few weeks ahead in young Wally's timeline when his life would take another rough turn.

The messages played themselves out and Dick deleted them before he made one last round of the apartment, making sure it was secure. He left through the window just as he had come.

The sun wouldn't set for hours. He had plenty of time to make it back to Blüdhaven before nightfall. He wasn't in costume. He found that sneaking around during the day was easier if he could blend in with a crowd. He'd take the train home and visit Wally tomorrow. Poor kid was stuck with John and Shayera until then.

+_JLU_+

"Who's that?" Wally pointed to another man in the picture. He'd somehow found his way into John's photo album and had to know who everybody was. They had made it through the earlier years of John's life with many laughs at John's expense but now they were into his years in the Marine Core.

"Jeff Derman. I met him on my first day of training."

"Who's that? And that?"

"Uh…Hal Collins. Mo Juma."

Shayera walked into the bedroom. Wally had the large book on his lap his head turning from side to side as he rapidly looked at all the pictures. She didn't remember Flash being so…twitchy. At least he could slow down every once in a while and force himself to do some things at a normal pace. Not little Wally. Everything was done at break-neck speeds.

John sat next to the child looking down at the memories. It seemed like ages since he'd left the core but he remembered so much of it in detail. Some moments he'd rather not recall but he knew that being in the military had provided him experience that made him a better member of the Lantern Core and the discipline to do what had to be done for peace.

"My Dad says army guys are really tough."

John's wandering mind came back to the present. "Was your dad in the army?" He'd heard this Wally talk about his father fairly often. Apparently he was the primary caregiver and Wally looked up to him. But John could almost sense Wally had a fear of his father. Not the type of parent-invoked fear that kept children from running amuck but the type that scared them into running and hiding. Rudolph West probably had a bad temper and short fuse.

"I don't know but he has lots of pictures of army things."

John and Shayera glanced at each other. They didn't know what this meant, hopefully nothing.

"We have to get going," Shayera announced. "One section of the new tower it nearly complete. Batman wants us there to help him check it out."

"What about Wally?"

"He has to come with us. Everyone else is busy and can't watch him."

"I can stay here," Wally suggested.

John shook his head and closed the photo album. "Not by yourself."

"But I do all the time," he protested.

Again John and Shay looked at each other. Wally kept unintentionally dropping hints about his life with his father and it didn't sound very good. All they knew for certain was that eventually Wally would end up in an orphanage. It had yet to happen in to little Wally but it would and they could do nothing to prevent it. Time travel was a cruel tease.

+_JLU_+

The man tugged at the ratty overalls and hard hat. They didn't fit properly but he had to be in disguise and this was all they could get.

"Quit grumbling."

He turned to find one of their leaders behind him, similarly attired.

"It's not my fault this thing is too small."

The higher ranking man stepped close to him. "Suck it up."

A crackle on a walkie-talkie and then a female voice broke up the conversation. "Samson, we're ready here. What about you guys?"

"Except for a few complaints we're ready here too." Around him several men nodded and patted the tool boxes some of them carried.

"Alright let's synchronize. Four o'clock in 5…4….3….2…1…mark."

Samson set his watch with the count down as did the others. "We're ready." He turned to his followers. "Remember we do this for our kind, for our future, for the Human Federation."

A cheer went up and the operation moved forward.

+JLU+

Batman had just arrived at the site. His jet was parked not too far away, but away from prying and curious eyes. He'd left J'onn on the watchtower to finish up the research. They were close to a breakthrough. They'd be able to fix Wally soon but there was just one piece of the puzzle that they didn't have. The exact frequency of the quantum chrono-generator that changed the Flash. The frequency would determine the energy of the chronotons and the radiation produced and they could then find an equal but opposite energy to return Flash to his true age by reversing the regression. Problem was that without the original weapon or its schematic they could be guessing for eons. At least with Wally being a kid they were saving money on his food bill.

He swung down from his grappling-hook and landed with practiced ease. The auxiliary section of the tower was nearly complete. It looked good with Metropolis harbour in the background.

The primary section was still under construction. The top few floors were just naked skeletons of steel and concrete. The lower floors had the panelling on the outside and on the inside carpenters were hard at work.

Batman watched a group of about six workers walk past him. They were heading for the primary construction site. He didn't think much of it until one man glanced back at him and something in his eyes raised a warning.

He was just about to head after them when John, Shayera and Wally landed in front of him. As soon as he was free from the green bubble Wally ran a few meters away. He wasn't used to the Green Lantern method of travel.

John spoke first. "I know. We're late. But somebody held us up." They looked down at Wally.

"I had to pee."

Batman smirked. "They joys of baby-sitting." He'd had his turn already. The others had forced him to take Wally for two days citing that he had plenty of experience taking care of children. Of course Dick and Tim had been older when they came to live with Bruce so the only person in the Wayne household with experience with young children was Alfred.

Alfred hadn't minded the extra company and had even managed to make the pint-sized speedster useful with chores around the manor. Tim had balked at the idea of baby-sitting but once Wally had beaten him at a video game, a game at which Tim declared himself to be the master of, then they'd found something to keep both of them busy.

For the brief times that Bruce was home he had managed to find a tenuous connection with the child. Seeing Batman out of costume went a long way in making Wally more comfortable but they still were not as close as Wally was with the others.

"Have you been in yet?" Shayera asked.

"Not-"

"Hey! Quit it, kid!"

The three heroes turned to find Wally darting around one of the workers trying to peak into his toolbox.

"I just want to see." He stared up at the large man not recognizing the malevolence in the pinched expression.

Before the situation could slide any further, one of the less likely of peacekeepers intervened.

"You," Shayera pointed at the worker, "Back off! And you," she scooped Wally up, "With me." She sent the worker another glare before taking off and heading for the entrance of the auxiliary wing.

"I just wanted to see his blinking toys," Wally muttered sadly as she put him down.

"It's okay, Wally," she said softly and patted his head. She took a small hand in her own and they walked into the building, followed by John and then Batman. He hadn't missed Wally's comment. That worker was one of the ones that had walked past him a minute ago. He hadn't forgotten about them and Batman wanted to see those blinking toys too.

Shayera and John looked at the set up. They had limited power in the building, there were frequent water interruptions and the first thing Batman had installed was this?

"Security monitors," Shayera stated.

"Of course." Batman tapped a few buttons to change the image on the central monitors.

Shayera looked at John and intoned with great sarcasm, "Oh, of course."

Batman zoomed in on the ill-tempered worker he recognized from outside. The camera angle wasn't the best and he was unable to see into the tool box. He sought out and observed the other workers from the groups carefully monitoring their movements. They had spread out into many areas and many levels of the structure. The white eyes of Batman's cowl narrowed. Something was going on. A tug on his cape drew his attention downward and into big green eyes speckled with blue.

"Mr. Bats," Shayera and John snickered behind him, "I want to play with that toy." Wally pointed to one of the smaller monitors. It showed a bend in a corridor and at the corner was a small blinking device. The pattern of flashing lights was no doubt what drew the child's attention to it but this was no toy.

"Bomb."

The smiles on John and Shayera's faces fell immediately.

Batman worked rapidly trying to determine which camera it was and where it was aimed. "Where is it?" John asked tensely from over his shoulder.

"Primary, lobby, south-west corner."

"I'm there." John took off.

A tense minute passed and then John was on the screen. He easily disarmed the explosive and was back with the others very soon. Batman took the brick sized explosive. It was low tech but no less dangerous. He began carefully removing the casing. He could hear Wally asking to see it but John held him back.

It didn't take long for Batman to find it. He'd read the report about the robbery at LexCorp. He knew what had been stolen. He didn't know how it ended up in this low-grade explosive. He removed the small device; a receiver –a 4700-GZ L to be exact –built for almost all ranges and for all most all frequencies. Great for devices looking for certain signals in areas where there was a lot of interference, a large city for example. Most of these were used for remote detonation for controlled explosions used in a variety of applications from mining to the military. It was simpler than using wires.

The problem with LexCorp was that they liked to put their technology to use in weapons. It was one of the reasons why Bruce pulled Wayne Enterprises out of the partnership they had with LexCorp. You were likely to find these receivers in weapons designed by LexCorp for the US military and just as likely to find them in the devices used by the enemies that the US and other governments were trying to fight.

"It's LexCorp tech, isn't it," Shayera asked. Luthor was still the usual suspect for these types of things, even if he was behind bars.

"It is. But according to reports, twenty-six units were stolen."

There was a short pause before they took action. Shayera took Wally and got him out of the building. John began using his ring to scan for more bombs. Batman called for help and went to track down the six bombers.

Outside were some of the League Doctors and medical technicians overseeing the plans for the medical facility incorporated into the building design. Shayera landed and put Wally down. She recognized one of the physicians, one who had been helping save Flash from his hyper-metabolism.

"Keep an eye on him," she told the doctor. She was about to fly off but reconsidered. "Keep both eyes on him." She stepped into the wind and was away a moment later.

The Doctor looked down and the child looked up. "Hello there."

Wally responded with a quick 'hi' in return but his attention was soon drawn to the commotion not too far away. Hawkgirl had had joined Batman in rounding up the bombers. Needless to say they were not about to give up without a fight.

Behind Wally the Doctor observed, not the battle but the child. He fidgeted, a lot –he knew someone else who did the same thing. The child's movements were also very staccato. This couldn't possibly be who he thought it was. And if he was, then how?

"Doctor Warner, can we check the site?" one of the subordinate Doctor's asked.

"We'll have to wait a bit. There's something going on and we can't go in just yet." He glanced down to make sure the child was still there. More than the Thanagarian's warning was telling him that the kid needed constant monitoring.

+_JLU_+

John disarmed and collected another two bombs and added them to the growing pile within a green sphere. That totalled twenty-one. Not the roundest of numbers, but his ring couldn't find anymore. He decided to make one last round just in case. As he took off the sounds of a battle punctuated the background noise of the city.

"I said 'stay down'!" She punched one of the bombers, taking him out for the count. One man ran at her from behind, a large piece of metal grasped in his hands. Shayera, being the hardened fighter that she was, easily dodged the arc of the makeshift weapon with a smooth duck. From her crouch she punched him twice, hard in the gut forcing his breath from his lungs. A sweep kick knocked the assailant from his feet. He remained there clutching at his stomach and trying to breath. He was taken care of –now for the others.

It was a fifty-fifty chance that she would glance right rather than left but she didn't. As it was the armed woman was too far away for Shayera to make out in her peripheral vision. Shayera looked left and remained unaware of the danger. The weapon levelled on the winged fighter and just at the trigger was being squeezed, a flying object struck the gun. The force of the impact and the sharp pain vibrating up her hands caused her to drop the firearm.

"You wretched Bat," the woman hissed looking at the one who'd thwarted her.

"Don't expect me to apologize."

The woman crouched into a fighting stance but Batman just stood there. Another member of the bombing squad sailed between them and landed with a thud and a bit of a crunch several feet away.

Shayera flew over and joined the stand off. "What are you waiting for?" She looked at Batman. He glanced to his colleague and gave her a measured look. Shayera rolled her eyes. "What a time to be a gentleman." Shayera flew at the woman. The other woman's hastily thrown kick was caught in a tight grip and not a moment later the woman landed heavily on top of one bombers who had been trying to get up.

Shayera walked over to them. The man was unconscious. The woman wasn't but from her dazed look she wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon.

"Look's like I missed the fun." John landed, an orb filled with bombs floating in front of him.

"Is that all of them?" Batman asked.

"All that's in the tower. There were only twenty more."

"That still leaves five receivers unaccounted for," the Dark Knight mumbled. He crouched next to the barely conscious woman. "How many bombs?"

The response was slow to come but after a few tries she managed to whisper. "For our humanity….we shall take back our justice…."

"Forget her." Shayera turned away. Her patience had been exhausted during the fight. She hadn't even gotten a chance to use her mace. Batman and John watched her leave when suddenly she stopped and began looking around frantically.

"What is it?" John asked. Shayera's eyes darted around scanning the crowd for the one person she knew had to be there somewhere. Damn it, where was he? She headed to a small group of spectators, John following.

"Where is he?" She demanded.

"What-"

Her hands twisted into the front of his white shirt. "Wally! You were supposed to watch him."

Dr. Warner was acutely aware that his feet weren't on the ground. Her small stature hid a fierce personality and her fury was aimed directly at him. It was only when the grip tightened that he figured she wanted some sort of response.

"He was just here a moment ago."

She promptly dropped him and the esteemed medical professional landed painfully on his gluteus maximus. Rather than being outraged at his treatment at the hands of a Justice League member, his colleagues and the other spectators were more concerned with the child who was missing. They didn't know who the youngster was but obviously he meant a great deal to Hawkgirl.

"I don't see him," the Green Lantern announced. He had taken flight as soon as he realized who was absent. From his vantage point he didn't see any little head of red hair, but with his speed Wally could be just about anywhere. The two heroes and other League employees continued to search while still seated on the hard ground Dr. Warner rolled the name around his head. Wally.

+_JLU_+

Another bomb was laid with deliberate care. A series of buttons were pressed and a small red light lit up bathing a content face with its glow. He picked up and moved on, whistling a tune as he went. He'd picked up this particular habit when observing a few people on the street. Familiar music seemed to make a good mood even better. It certainly kept the smile on his face.

The tune echoed in the bare concrete corridor until was barely a whisper. It was only then that the small stalker stepped out of his hiding place. He cautiously approached the device. It looked harmless enough but GL, Fly-girl and even Mr. Bats were scared of them and the other ones were smaller than this.

Carefully he repeated the pattern of buttons that he'd seen, confident that the red light would turn off. It did, so had the other two things with the red lights that he'd already encountered. The pattern of buttons was the same every time but he always moved fast enough to keep up with the stranger just to make sure. He was certain something bad would happen if he input the wrong code.

With his small hands he picked up the device and put it in the middle of the small paint splotched fabric tarp he'd found. Gathering up the corners he lifted the makeshift bag and followed the faint sound of the stranger's song.

+_JLU_+

Batman had secured the bombers but had not been able to pry any additional information from them. They were obviously members of a radical group so there had to be more of them. He looked at the bystanders who'd been kept at bay by the local police. Anyone of those people could be one of them. And even more might agree with them.

Above them the Green Lantern and Shayera searched for Wally. He could have easily been swallowed up by the mob. Or the more likely scenario was that Wally had gotten himself in trouble -adult or child where there's Wally, there's trouble.

"Anything?" He asked as John flew over.

"No. I'm going to expand the search area."

"Wait." Batman took out one of his gadgets and flipped out the small antenna.

"What's that?"

Batman smirked. "Electronic leash." He'd hidden a small tracker in Wally's shoes, just in case. His face returned to its familiar serious expression when the screen came to life and a location was indicated.

"I should have thought of that," GL mumbled.

"Twenty-first or twenty-second story!"

Batman ran by him.

"Wait. Of what?" John called after but when he looked up in the direction Batman was heading his question was answered. "Oh, no."

As though responding to his faint words the side of one of the uppermost floors erupted in a ball of flames and smoke as a large explosive detonated. The shockwave pushed him back and knocked many people to the ground. A large section of the top two floors crumbled away and fell many meters to the empty ground directly below. Other pieces of debris, liberated during the initial blast, hurtled perilously to the spectators. Lantern quickly extended a green force-field over the people at risk but he couldn't cover everybody.

Instinctively they ducked and covered their heads but it would not have done them any good had the debris made it too them. Thankfully, the large pieces were pulverized by Shayera and her mace and the convenient arrival of Superman and the Martian Manhunter allowed them to keep everybody safe.

"Sorry were late," Superman began. "We were-"

"Save it," Shayera cut him off. "We have to find Wally." She was about to continue to search the crowd but John's words stopped her.

"He's somewhere in the tower."

The other three all stared at him hoping they'd misheard. John simply shook his head. This was not a bad joke.

J'onn looked up at the destruction. Flames licked up the naked skeleton of the building. There was little to burn but the initial blast had caused more than a little bit of damage. The top two floors were a write off and the floors below had been scorched black and brown. Even three floors below the explosion site there were red glows; flames that had followed the path of least resistance through the openings in the concrete levels and spread, consuming any available fuel.

As they flew towards the crippled tower J'onn begged silently of some god, any god, to protect that child.

+_JLU_+

Batman, first on the scene, followed the faint sound of coughing, jumping collapsed sections of concrete and steel. He relied on his flash-light to pick his way through. The lights that had been strung along the ceiling had been destroyed, the broken shards of thin glass crunching under his feet as he walked.

"Wally!" The coughs had dwindled and he needed a voice to follow.

The responding yell was cut off by more coughs but he could follow those too. Every few meters patches of sunlight shone through the holes in the upper levels and lit the wreckage. It was at a particularly large patch of light that he stopped.

A large rectangular section of the floor above had broken off but had remained mostly in one piece. It blocked the corridor and had provided a fire-shield for anything on the other side, the side where the coughs originated.

There was no way through but there was a way over. Batman scaled the fairly steep incline of the cement section and from the floor above managed to find another opening back down. It was then just a simple matter of stepping over some debris and finding his target.

"Wally." Batman's flashlight pierced through the smoky haze permeating the air and focused on the small form in a corner. Batman turned the light away from Wally so that the child wasn't blinded. Some of the light reflected off the grey surfaces and gave enough light for Wally to make out who had found him.

Batman was quickly at Wally's side but the child didn't say anything. He wiped away some of the soot that had fallen on the fair cheeks but still the child said nothing. From beneath hair darkened with particles of soot scared green eyes regarded him. "You're okay," Batman reassured. Wally had some cuts and scrapes and he'd probably breathed in more than his share of dust and ash but he would be okay.

He checked him over visually for more injuries, of which there were none but the watery green eyes were full of fright. Batman didn't know what to do. Comforting kids was Flash's forte.

The bag next to Wally soon found itself the owner of Batman's attention, at least for the moment. He opened it and saw more bombs but these ones were of a better design and carried a higher explosive yield. Thankfully they were all disarmed. Batman looked at Wally but Wally was looking off to the side staring at nothing. He took the collection of bomb in the sheet and stood.

"Come on, Wally." His voice was soft, holding none of the usual Batman thunder. After a moment Wally stood somewhat shakily and followed Batman who picked an easy path through the debris. There was another set of stairs on the other side, the thankfully undamaged side of the building. They could take those a few flights down and get to an opening where one of the other members could help them to the ground.

As he walked Batman felt a light tug from near the bottom of his cape. He stopped walking and looked down. A small trembling hand had latched on to the dark material.

Wally nearly walked into the suddenly stationary Batman. Glancing up and finding the white eyes looking down at him he quickly let go of the cape and took a step back. From glistening eyes tears had cleansed narrow paths over the pale cheeks. His head was bowed but his eyes peaked up at the Dark Knight while small hands twisted with anxiety.

Suddenly Bruce crouched down. He grasped the edge of his cape and curled his arm around the small body offering the physical and emotional protection of his cape and his embrace. When he stood again there was only one set of feet on the ground. Wally borrowed as deep into the embrace as possible. Batman would carry him the rest of the way.

**End Chapter 5 - We Owe the Greatest Respect to a Child**

Thanks so much for all the reviews guys. There's just one more chapter to go in Part 0 so stay tuned.

Sagga Bott…


	6. Chapter 6

Part 0: Shadow of Youth

PG-13

Summary: Post DWF. As an accident saves Flash from his own metabolism (but not without leaving some changes of its own) an unknown benefactor is gathering information on the League's greatest weakness.

Disclaimer: The DC characters are not mine. I'm just playing with them. They'll be returned…eventually, not in good condition but that can hardly be blamed on me!

Author's Note: Back for more are you? Mwa ha ha ha haaa.

PLEASE READ THE A/N IN CHAPTER 1 SO YOU ARE NOT CONFUSED LATER!

**Chapter 6 Contra Mundum**

The primary tower was still being secured; John and Shayera were overseeing the process. Meanwhile Superman and J'onn were studying the explosives that Wally had found. They wanted to make sure they were really disarmed and not just lying in wait for somebody to remotely detonate them. They also want to figure out who could have built the devices.

The six bombers that they had caught were from the 'Human Federation' –just a rag-tag group of extremist trying to get rid of what they considered a problem. Their bombs had been (or would have been) effective even if they were very simplistic. But these last four explosives were in a completely different class.

"I doubt even a specialized bomb squad could have disarmed this without setting it off," J'onn said as he found yet another booby trap in the circuitry that would have cause an immediate detonation. Only the input code could safely disarm the explosive.

Superman stood next to J'onn using his x-ray vision to see within. "You'll never guess what I've found," the Kryptonian said with dry sarcasm.

J'onn didn't hesitate. "More Lex Corp technology."

"Yes, but I didn't hear a report about concussive accelerators being stolen."

"Only the twenty-six receiver units were stolen."

"Then I guess this must have been a donation."

+JLU+

While the others attended to damage control and finding the perpetrator, Batman was carrying out a very careful interrogation, unlike any other he'd done before.

Most interrogations didn't include fixing boo-boos.

"This won't hurt." He could feel Wally tense as he sprayed the disinfectant on the cut. He relaxed a moment later. It really hadn't hurt. Wally watched as Batman put band-aids over the small cuts and on the larger ones he used gauze and tape.

Wally had calmed significantly since leaving the primary tower. Green Lantern had given them a lift to the ground so Batman never had to give up his hold of Wally until they arrived in the auxiliary tower. The others had all been very glad to see that Wally was not seriously harmed. Shayera had sworn revenge and everyone else had silently agreed.

"Does it still hurt?"

Wally shook his head as the gingerly poked at one of the bandages on his arm.

"Am I in trouble?"

The long pause before the response had Wally feeling even more nervous. "Yes," Batman answered honestly. "You could have gotten yourself seriously hurt."

Wally's gaze focussed downward. He had known that he wasn't suppose to wander off but he saw that man going inside and everyone else was busy so he had to help. Wally, told Bruce as much.

Batman listened to the explanation but didn't waver. "You still should have told someone."

"I know." His voice was no more than a whisper. "I just wanted to be a hero too."

Monkey see, monkey do, Bruce thought to himself.

"Did you see who left those bombs there?" Bruce asked.

"Uh huh. He had dark hair. He was big, like Mr. Green. And he sang while he did it. And he could break doors with one hand." Wally held out his hand a mimicked what he'd seen the man do, complete with sound effects.

It wasn't a typical description but given how old his subject was, it was pretty good. And while he only got enough to get a general idea of the assailants looks the last bit of information told him a great deal. This man was a meta-human, or an alien.

"What are you humming?" Batman asked.

"It's the song the man was singing." Wally continued to hum while swinging his legs to the rhythm over the edge of the table. Batman surreptitiously turned on a recording device on his utility belt.

A few seconds later the door to the room opened and Superman walked in.

"Hey, Wally. How are you feeling?"

The child shrugged. "Okay."

"He bounces back quickly," Superman said to Batman.

"Kids do that." Typical Batman reply. "What have you found?" The nice Batman who had been taking care of a scared child a moment ago was gone. Regular Batman was back.

"More evidence that ties this to Luthor."

"You seem comfortable with that." The comment sounded innocuous enough but Clark knew nothing that came out of that mouth was.

"Luthor is a familiar enemy. I can usually figure out his motives."

"You won't be able to this time."

"Why not?"

"Because this isn't Luthor's work. Somebody else is out to end the League. We can't rule out that Luthor is part of it, but he's not the one calling the shots."

Superman crossed his arms. "So someone else is picking up where he left off? You think they'd have learnt by now."

"Learnt what?" Batman turned away a cleared the medical equipment he'd been using on Wally. "That the League can't be beat? Or the League can't be beat that way?" The white eyes focussed on the Kryptonian. "People agreed and still do agree with Luthor's anti-League sentiments. They won't give up so easily."

They'd all expected it to be an up-hill battle to get people comfortable with the League again but they hadn't been expecting such fantastic acts of violence. Superman looked away resisting Batman's words. Now that the world was safe (until the next psycho came along) the Justice League now had to worry about a whole new threat to peace: the people.

+JLU+

Their work day was coming to an end. It was 2am. Wally slept peacefully curled up on a chair while Batman, Superman, Diana, J'onn, John and Shayera stood around and discussed the day's events. They were mostly in agreement. The 'Human Federation' was going to be a problem that wasn't going away, and so were the anti-league emotions. The bombings were perpetrated by two groups –one, a group of six, the other, a group of one. The question was: did the single bomber set up the HF people knowing they'd fail but cause the league to leave the rest of the structure un-guarded? The whole thing reeked of a test. A test they would have failed miserably if not for Wally.

However, they all would have preferred failure to putting Wally in danger.

But he had been in clear danger and though they did not speak of it, anger permeated the group. Each word from their mouths held an edge, an urgency, a fear. How many times in the past four weeks had they come close to losing Wally? Well, first with Brainiac and Luthor, then the problem with his metabolism, then the bank robber, Strom, and now this. Sure Flash had been in danger in plenty of missions but in these scenarios he's always far more vulnerable or out-matched than usual. They couldn't help but worry. Their worry for Flash brought them together but could it pull them apart as well? And what if they lost him? They could not consider it.

"What about changing the Flash back to normal?" Diana asked.

"We've been able to determine that the only other data we require is the frequency of the weapon that caused Wally's transformation initially," said J'onn.

"Well how do we get that?"

"We can't." There was finality in Batman's voice that they were not accustomed to. Had he given up? "The only way we could find that is to have the gun or the design schematics, of which we can get neither."

Superman wasn't convinced the situation was hopeless. "There has to be another way. What about Strom's partner?"

"Dr. V," Shayera supplied. "Strom didn't know anything besides his name."

"I couldn't find anything in my files," said Batman. "Either this man doesn't exist or he's very good at hiding his tracks." Of course an alien wouldn't have any documents that Bruce could search. It would explain the how Strom got that unusual weapon and it would explain what Wally had seen. Unfortunately there were other aspects that an alien perpetrator could not account for, so his theory would remain a theory and a secret.

"Maybe we need to look elsewhere. There are other experts in this field," Clark suggested. "We could bring them in on this."

Stewart was wary. More people meant more secrets. "How do we know we can trust them? How do we explain what happened without letting them see Wally? After that it's only a hop and a jump for them to figure out his identity."

Shayera nodded her agreement. "Lantern's right. We can't risk bringing anyone else in on this." Some of the other's nodded.

"Then we'll need a miracle," intoned J'onn.

+JLU+

The orbiting watch tower was only steps away from being completely de-commissioned. All the technology that they could reuse was saved the rest could be salvaged from the Pacific by Wayne Tech. The computer core had been taken to the new site but there was still an uplink remaining between the core and the watchtower computers. This gave Clark the privacy he needed to do his search.

Guilt pricked at his conscience as he did this but he needed answers and he couldn't ask. He accessed public records and looked through the file of one Wallace Rudolph West. It was a surprisingly long file. He refrained from reading the details but he couldn't help but skim. He returned back to the top of the file to the information he'd been seeking in the first place.

_Mother: Marianne West (deceased) _

_Father: Rudolph West (Whereabouts unknown)_

Superman sat back in the chair and stared –"_Whereabouts unknown._" Wally's father was missing. The child had been abandoned? When? He didn't know and he would not search further to find out. This was bad enough but he'd been curious since the day he'd first caught the five-year old speedster. He'd asked for his father, a man Clark hadn't known Wally was even familiar with. Batman was supposed to be their resident mystery. What else didn't he know about the Flash?

"It was a car accident. DWI. Wasn't even her car. Rudolph West took his son and moved from Blue Valley, Nebraska to Keystone, Kansas. At age five, Wallace was placed in a group home when Social Services found him home alone. His father was never found. Wally was never adopted."

Clark sighed. He was caught red handed, and by Batman of all people.

"You sure know a lot about him."

"Dick and Wally were close."

"Still are," Clark corrected.

Batman walked over and closed the file. "He wouldn't appreciate you prying."

"You did." It was a juvenile counter argument but what else did he have?

"It's expected of me."

Clark looked back at the now empty screen. "This won't change anything."

Batman headed for the exit. "It's not me who needs convincing."

+JLU+

The park was full of kids. It was a Saturday and many families had descended on the large park between Central City and Keystone. The river was calm and fairly shallow in this area so many children collected at the shores to play. Among them was Wally West, still physically five years old, but causing as much trouble as the adult did.

"I told you to stop doing that," John scolded. He pulled Wally away from the shoreline where he and a little girl had been splashing anyone who walked by.

"Aww, come one Stewart. They were just playing."

"Yeah!" Wally moved next to the adult who was on his side, presenting a united front. John crossed his arms.

"I'm not baby-sitting both of you."

Dick just laughed.

Unbeknownst to them they were being observed. Only the most careful of eyes would have been able to see the red glow of his cigarette as he hid in the thicket of trees. He was learning quite a bit watching the adults and children but there was only one child of particular interest to him. His name was Wally and he was very close to the Justice League members. One of them was in the park with the child. The other man, tall with long, dark hair was, as of yet, unidentified. The child he had a theory about. And if his theory should prove correct he would move on with his plan. He just needed to get the child alone.

"That way!" Wally pointed and continued his exploration of the river bank. They were suppose to have left an hour ago but Wally was having so much fun and they weren't having a bad time either.

The evening was just creeping over the afternoon and the sky was changing to its peculiar shade of orange. They continued to explore further upstream following Wally but ever cautious of what was not too far ahead. The area had been marked with police tape. The immediate danger of the radiation had past but the area remained of limits just as a precaution.

They rounded a bend in the river and were met by scorched earth and yellow tape. This is where it had begun –where they had almost lost him, again.

"Wally, come back here. It's time to go," Dick called. He wouldn't let them get any closer. The whole area was too much like a grave, too quiet and too still. Wally stopped and turned back just a few meters before the yellow tape.

"Ok." He was getting tired anyway. Suddenly, a force to his back knocked him to the ground. No sound accompanied the blast and when he looked up John and Dick were gone. He looked around but he was alone. The world had become strangely silent. "Dick." He called quietly, fearing that any great sound would rouse a sleeping beast existing only as a vague shadow in his imagination. "John."

Wally got back to his feet and began to walk where he had last seen his friends. That's when he noticed the river. It was acting strangely. The water was moving so slowly. The currents lazily churned around the rocks and droplets of water hung in the air nearly motionless. He reached out to touch it but without warning intense heat spread across his back and then pain. He fell forward into the slow moving river, a sluggish splash of water arching into the air.

Whatever was wrong with the water didn't seem to affect Wally. Quickly he stood and turned around. Approaching him at a leisurely pace was a man. Nothing striking about him; dark hair, grey eyes, large build, kind of tall, kind of old (in Wally' opinion) but nothing alarming. Then he started whistling and Wally remembered.

"You had the bombs."

The man continued to advance a strange smile twisting his lips. "That's right. And you disarmed them. That wasn't very nice."

"No, you're not nice!"

The man laughed once. It made the child wince, the harsh sound that it was. He glanced away hoping to find John or Dick coming to help him but there was still no sign of them. No sooner had he turned back to the man than he found a tight grip around his neck. Wally struggled to breath. He clawed at the hand clamped down on his trachea but it didn't budge. The will to fight was beginning to leave him but then the man materialized from thin air a strange, mean-looking weapon in his other hand and the struggling began again in earnest. The man only gave him a cold smile.

A blast of green energy surprised them both. It was directed at the stranger but he deflected it and many trees in the area took the brunt of the blast. The spell around them had been broken. The river flowed at its usual speed and a cacophony of sounds returned.

The stranger didn't give up his grip on Wally. He took to the air putting some distance between the Green Lantern who was still looking rather shaky from the first assault he'd launched on the unsuspecting trio.

"Let him go!" Lantern barely managed to pant out his order. His body was aching but he'd fought and won in worse condition.

The man holding Wally didn't respond verbally. Instead he let loose another blast, this one from his wicked weapon. John managed to dodge the direct blast but not the explosion it created.

The Lantern problem temporarily taken care of he returned to his prey. The child's eyes were barely open and he had only the slightest of grips on the hand choking him. There were scratch marks all over his hand from Wally's attempts to break free but he easily ignored the pain and the slipperiness of his blood.

The man smiled at Wally briefly. He looked at the gun and a strangely intense look came over his face. A few seconds passed and suddenly a dial on the gun changed. A shrill hum filled the air drowning out everything else.

He looked back at Wally and pointed the gun at him. "You are a worthy opponent," he told him. "I look forward to confronting you again." And he pulled the trigger.

Pain like nothing he had ever felt before overcame all his senses. For those five seconds nothing existed but agony. The bright flash of light didn't seem to bother his attacker nor the intense blast of radiation and heat. Through the light, and the heat the stranger stared at him, entranced by the pure emotion and the bright pain-filled eyes. Even when the spectacle ended he continued to stare.

His clothing was in tatters small pieces hanging limply from his limp frame but the eyes, though, unseeing were wide open as if frozen. Wally's mind was just beginning to right itself, recovering from the pain of only a moment ago. The lack of oxygen was making it a slow process but eventually he blinked and suddenly he was drowning. Around him there was nothing but cold water and forces pushing, pulling, and dragging him down.

The shock and the release of pressure around his neck had him gasping but his first breath had been more water than air and the following one, only water. He struggled vainly reaching up towards light and life though still sinking into darkness.

"Wally!" He heard someone call his name though they sounded light-years away. There was a disturbance in the water above him that he was not aware of and suddenly a dark hand reached out and pulled him up.

Nightwing resurfaced bringing Wally with him, the full grown Wally. He persevered against the currents bringing his friend to the shore. As soon as they broke the surface Wally had been coughing feebly but once on shore and on his sided the violent spasms began and river water poured out.

Not far up river Green Lantern watched the retreating figure of his enemy. He'd caught the guy off guard just after he'd shot Wally causing him to drop his hostage into the water. He'd seen Nightwing go after Wally and confident in the kid's safety he continued to fight the attacker. Lantern had just been gaining the advantage when the other man turned tail and left faster than he could follow. He only wasted a moment glaring after him before flying to where Nightwing and Wally had beached themselves.

Nightwing looked up at him while he patted the still-coughing Wally's back. John just stared silently, hardly believing that they finally and so suddenly had their friend returned to them.

Using his ring John retrieved Dick's clothes from where he'd left them. What was left of Wally's clothing was torn and wouldn't have fit him anyway. Once clothed and the majority of the coughing fit having passed GL rushed him to the temporary Justice League Headquarters. Nightwing watched them go hoping that this ordeal was over with. Though it didn't show he was supremely glad to have his friend, maybe his best-friend, back.

He took out his communicator. A second later he received a response to his call.

"What?"

"He's back. We got Wally back." He waited for a response.

"Acknowledged. Batman out."

Dick's eye narrowed and he shook his head. He didn't know why he was expecting more of a reaction from Bruce. He and Wally weren't close. He just thought that as Dick's long-time friend, as Batman's colleague, he just might care. Dick walked away somehow disappointed again.

+JLU+

Ten days passed and Wally bounced back from his latest near death experience. His metabolism was "normal" and the Doctor's had run and rerun their tests on him confirming that he was quickly recovering all the strength he'd lost after his Speed Force encounter. Superman had fed a fabricated story of what happened to the Flash when he was gone to the other League members and they believed him readily enough. It wasn't that he didn't trust them but they couldn't run the risk of anyone figuring it out. Nobody had made the connection between Wally and the Flash, as far as they knew. Thus the Flash's identity, the most precious of superhero secrets, remained a just that.

The other six of the big seven were relieved to have him back. Wally had only vague memories of his time as a child under their care. Every so often another piece of his memory would unfold and unlike so much of his actual childhood, the memories were good. So why did he feel so sad?

It was the Green Lantern who found him on the roof. He'd come up here to be alone, something uncharacteristic of the outgoing speedster but he just wasn't feeling like himself.

"Flash?"

The call startled him. He was also surprised to find John standing only a few feet away. His mind had been completely elsewhere, he hadn't eve heard GL walk up to him.

"You okay kid?" GL asked. The Flash was sitting in front of a large intake fan, leaning again the grating separating him from the rapidly spinning blades.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He smiled up at his friend before staring back out at the sky. GL sat down and joined him. Every once in a while they could see a League member fly by, returning from of setting out on various missions. Flash wasn't on activity duty yet but he wore his suit any way. "You never know when you might need me," he'd told them the day before and they'd all been relieved at the return of his boisterous behaviour. For too long he'd been laying quietly recovering. They'd worried. Wally must have felt it and tried to help them. He'd covered his true melancholy and they'd been so eager to have him back they'd overlooked the warnings that he was still not the man they knew before his trip to the Speed Force.

"What's wrong Wally?" John finally broke the silence.

The younger man opened his mouth to say something but it took him a few tries before he found the words. "I can't make this… these doubts go away. Y'know. I…" there was a frustrated sigh from the man with the gift of gab before he continued. "It took me a while to figure it out…. But I can't fix it."

"It'll fix itself."

Wally shook his head in disagreement, idly biting his bottom lip.

"What's bothering you specifically?"

"I don't know if I can still do it, GL. Running, seeing how fast I can go how much I can push it because… because I guess the idea of a limit never really crossed my mind before." He shrugged.

"You're worried about the Speed Force."

"I could be stuck there. Trapped away from….from everything I know…but I'm not scared."

He sounded so at peace that John looked at him. Wally was staring off at something in the distance and didn't notice his scrutiny or his worry. The Speed-Force had done something, shifted something in Wally's perspective. It almost seemed to give him a sense of peace. He remembered how content Flash had sounded when he'd been trapped in that strange dimension. Seeing Flash this way almost made him regret pulling him out and returning him to this world –but it was a very distant almost.

With effortless use of his super-speed, though John thought it was a touch slower than what was normal, Wally was standing. John followed, their deep-and-meaningful apparently at an end. They were walking to the roof access when John pasued. Wally turned around wondering what John was stopping for.

"There's something else."

Wally shook his head in denial.

"You said 'doubts', plural. Spit it out." The red clad shoulders seemed to droop and the head turned away from him.

"It's nothing."

"Then tell me."

It seemed like an eternity passed before he spoke. "I'd never felt cheated before. My life, was just…" he outstretched his arms to the side trying to convey his meaning. "I thought 'this is just how it goes for me'. It didn't…Growing up with a bunch of other kids was tough, growing up without a real family wasn't so bad because I didn't really know what I was missing, I guess. But now…" He shook his head trying to clear away some unwanted thought. "You were right. I can't understand losing family."

"Flash, about before, I didn't mean that-"

Flash interrupted. "I'm drained. I'm going to get a snack and then hit the sack. I'll see ya later."

John was quickly alone on the roof top. "I'm sorry, Wally."

+JLU+

Booster Gold walked into the room arguing with his floating robot buddy, Skeets. They didn't notice that Batman was already there. They didn't notice the quick motions of this hand on the controls that ended his audio feed. Nobody but Batman would ever know that the private conversation on the roof had been heard by a third party. The security system of the old military base, now their temporary headquarters, was antiquated, but still working, including the microphones planted to monitor activity outside.

Batman marched out between Booster and Skeets without acknowledging their presence.

"I'll never figure him out," said Skeets once the doors had closed.

"What's to figure out? Tall, dark and creepy."

+JLU+

Far away a large screen scrolled row upon row of Justice League members across its width. The woman at the computer's controls watched the faces of Earth's heroes slide past. Adjacent to her was her superior, the mastermind of this operation.

"Luthor is growing impatient, sir."

"He's not going anywhere. Anyway we can begin soon."

"You've discovered a weakness in the League?"

His head dipped in a nod. "The members. Together they are impressive but individually they can be conquered, broken. And one we can use to break them all."

He focussed on one image and brought it up to fill half the screen. The other half displayed all the known data of this member, one of the original seven.

"The Flash," the woman read.

He tapped a few buttons on the controls bringing up another file photo, this one of a young man with red hair and green-blue eyes. "Meet Wallace West." He smiled and turned to exit. As he walked, he whistled a tune.

**End Part 6 Against the World**

Alright! So that ends 'Part 0: Shadow of Youth', the intro to my main story event which will have a higher rating due to ….well, bad stuff. You'll see (insert evil cackle). It will probably be a few weeks (I'm busy with school/work and stuff) but I have a couple of chapters written so, we'll see. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the story. There are still a lot if issues to be tackled, questions to be answered, and heroes to be torn apart…stay tuned Thanks for reading and reviewing! Suggestions, opinions constructive, criticism all welcomed.

Sagga…


End file.
